The Apocalypse: Race For The Cure
by hollymarie4
Summary: Sequel to The Apocalypse: The First Year. The gang heads back to Las Vegas to try to mass produce a cure to save the human population...well what's left of it.
1. Going Back To Where It All Began

Well I'm back, this is the sequel I've been promising. I hope you guys enjoy it at much as you did the first story. :)

* * *

"I've decided to never get shot again." Spencer says as she sits up in the passenger seat. We're on our way back to Vegas. We've been driving for about twelve hours now after spending over a week scavenging for pretty much anything we could find. We're divided among three vehicles. Glen, Spencer, Aiden, Kyla and Angel are riding with me. Carmen, Jo, Jayden, Jessica and Francisco are in Tim's car. And Spencer's parent's and Jackie are in the last vehicle. They're carrying most of the scavenged goods since there's hardly anyone in their van.

"So you were trying to get shot this time?" I turn to my girlfriend and question her with a raised brow.

"Eyes on the road Romeo." My sister says behind me and I can't help but roll my eyes at her. Kyla usually isn't this abrasive. It's like ever since Spencer came into my life she's been extra...bitchy.

Maybe she thinks she's losing me or something, I'm not sure but she's gonna have to learn to love Spencer cause when this is all over and things go back to normal...I know Spencer is the girl I wanna spend the rest of my life with.

"I wasn't trying to get shot per se." She says glancing at me. I turn and give her a confused look. "I've never been shot and I've always wondered what it would be like to get shot, and now that I know... I've decided that I don't like it." She finishes her sentence by placing a hand over her wound.

"Aw." I say and reach out to take her hand in mine. "You're crazy, you know that right?" I ask and she smiles.

"She knows." Her brother shouts from the back seat.

"Shut up and make out with your boyfriend!" Spencer turns around and abruptly yells to her brother. Kyla, Angel and I, all giggle.

"You have anger management issues." Her brother replies.

"I'm working on it!" She shouts angrily but doesn't turn and face him.

I turn and smile at her, "You don't have issues baby." I say shaking my head.

"Lies." Kyla says from the middle seat. Spencer chuckles and nods.

"How much longer until we stop?" Aiden whines from the backseat. "I'm starving."

"There's a bag of chips on the floor back there." I tell him.

"I want foooooood." He whines. I shake my head and chuckle.

"You know for you to be so buff, you sure do act like a girl." Angel says to him and everyone, including Glen, bursts into laughter.

"Well..." Aiden says, tilting his head and sticking out his tongue. I watch the entire scene from the rear view mirror.

"I could use a break from riding." Spencer says from beside me.

"Okay." I nod and put on my blinkers to the right to let the other cars behind me know I'm pulling over.

"Oh, so when Spencer says it...it's alllllllll good then huh? Just do whatever she says do we?" Aiden says and I chuckle at him.

"Yup." I say simply and get out of the car as the other two pull up behind us.

"Why are we stopping?" Tim asks, getting out his van.

"The kids need a break." I say with a smile.

"Ah." He says and nods. "Half an hour." He says and gets back in his van. I've grown quite fond of Tim, he's nice and a really great leader. And he's the only one that didn't ask me a billion questions after I explained the whole 'my blood is kinda the cure' situation. My sister is included in those people.

To be fair to Kyla, she had no idea what was going on all those years. Why I was always the one taken to 'bring your daughter to work day.' She didn't know so I really shouldn't have expected anything less than a ton of questions. I honestly expected anger, or disbelief...something along those lines. But after the initial shock set in she was totally back to her bitchy old...well newly bitchy self. It's been just us two for so long that I don't think she really appreciates the fact that I've fallen for and given my heart to almost a complete stranger.

She's always been protective of me.

–

"_I'm not joking Ash, this girl is no good for you. You need to dump her." _

"_You have no proof of any of this Kyla, you're just making accusations." I tell my sister as I walk into my room and flop down on the bed._

"_I may only be in middle school but I'm not naïve Ashley. I know when someone is lying. Jaz is a liar, she only wants to use you." She tells me coming in behind me and shutting my door._

"_And you know this how?" I ask with a raised brow._

"_I just do." She counters. "I'm your sister Ashley, and I'm telling you...don't be with this girl." She stops and shakes her head. "She's going to hurt you, I promise." _

"_Well, you're fourteen, I'm not really gonna listen to some advice from a fourteen year old. What do you know anyways." I say, a bit harsher than I intended and I can immediately tell that I've hurt Ky's feelings. She drops her head and starts to walk away. "Ky I'm sorry I didn't mean for it to come out like-"_

"_Don't..." She says putting her hand up. She shrugs, "...you're right. What do I know? I'm just a kid." She finishes and leaves my room. I sigh and flop back on my bed. _

"_You ready to go kiddo?" My dad knocks on my door and peeks his head in. _

"_Yeah, just give me a minute." I turn my head to the door and tell him._

"_Everything okay?" He asks coming into my room and sitting down on the bed next to me. I sigh and sit up._

"_I think I hurt Ky's feelings." I tell him and he nods in understanding._

"_Sister's fight honey. It's a part of life and growing up. I'm sure she'll forgive you in no time." He smiles and kisses my forehead. "Now come on, you don't want to be late for your date." He says getting up from the bed. _

"_I'll be down in a sec." I smile at my father. He's always known how to make me feel better._

–

"How much longer until we reach Las Vegas?" Glen asks as him and Aiden file out the back seat.

"Oooh Glen, trivia." Spencer says coming up next to me. "Is Las Vegas a state or city?" She asks and smiles. They really do have an amazing relationship, much like me and Kyla. I'm sure they would do anything for one another.

"Don't be an ass, Spence." Glen shakes his head at his sister and pulls Aiden towards the trees.

"That means he doesn't know." Spencer purses her lips and nods.

"Must you crack so many jokes about his intelligence?" I ask, wrapping my girlfriend up in my arms.

She shrugs and thinks for a moment, "Yes." She nods and smiles. I lean in and kiss her lips.

"PG-13." I hear a deep voice come up behind us and say. I turn around and see it's Spencer's dad.

"Dad!" She whines and he just smiles. "Go awaaaaaaaay." She says trying to push him back in the direction he came from.

"Okay, Okay." He says holding up his hands. "I'm going. But I'm watching you two." He adds, doing the 'fingers to eyes to us' gesture.

"I'm sure." Spencer says sarcastically but her dad doesn't pick up on it.

"I like your dad." I turn to her and say with a smile.

"That makes one of us." She rolls her eyes and kisses me again.

"Where are we?" Kyla yells from the van.

"Still in the midst of a zombie apocalypse so why are you shouting?" Is my reply. Spencer chuckles beside me. Kyla shrugs and asks me again.

"Fort Smith, Arkansas. Maybe if you stayed awake for more than an hour you'd-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She cuts me off and shuts the van door.

"Well okay then." I turn back to Spencer and smile.

"That Tim guy said that we have time to cook up some Vienna sausages on a fire if we want to." Angel says coming up to Spencer and me.

"You.." I trail off and Spencer shakes her head. "We'll pass." I turn back to Angel and say. She nods and walks off.

"Are you two friends?" Spencer asks with a raised brow.

"Why? Would that make you jealous?" I ask wiggling my eye brows.

"Hardly." She says and turns to walk away.

"Hey!" I half shout and grab her arm, pulling her back to me. "You wouldn't be jealous if I befriended another girl? Another attractive girl?" I question. In case you were wondering, Angel isn't bad-looking at all. She has long black hair, gray eyes, sun-kissed skin and a heck of body, but she's not my type.

"Nope." Spencer shakes her head and my mouth drops.

"Really?" I ask after a moment.

"Yes Ashley." She chuckles. "Do you want me to worry about you and Ang-"

"Oh God no." I cut her off, shaking my head. "I'm just saying you know... in the future when things get back to normal and-"

"I'm not worried." She shakes her head and kisses my lips. "I'm gonna go talk to my mom for a minute, be right back." She tells me and saunters off.

"Hurry back cause I miss you already!" I shout softly after her and she turns and smiles at me.

Vegas gave me Spencer... how befitting to hope it gives me the answers to the curecure.


	2. The Reappearing Act

I'm glad everyone...well almost everyone enjoyed the first chapter. I hope I can win those of you back who don't like where Spencer and Ashley's characters are going.

* * *

"Is this the place?" Tim asks, pulling up next to me.

"Yeah." I nod and look at the building where I got my start.

Where this all began.

Where I am became this Ashley...the Ashley I barely even recognize. The Ashley I wish I could turn back everyday. I told Spencer that I wanted to come here to mass produce the cure, which is true in a way, but what I didn't tell her is that I'm also looking for a cure for myself. Something to change me back to the Ashley I was before all this.

I just want to be normal again.

"I'm not sure if this building has been cleared yet so we better tread quietly." I tell him and he gives me a stern nod.

"We'll pull up closer to the building and go the rest on foot." He says and I nod.

"There's a parking deck about a block down, if we get in deep sh...stuff" I correct myself, remembering that Tim's an adult. "...then the garage is directly connected to the building. It'd be a quicker and easier exit." I say and he nods and smiles.

"Good thinking, Ashley. Lead the way." He gestures towards the building. I put the car in drive and head towards the parking garage. After parking we all loaded our weapons and readied ourselves for entry.

"Are we ready?" I turn and ask the group. This is my land, my territory so Tim doesn't mind me taking point on this. Everyone nods as I open the door from the parking garage that leads into the building. I'm in the front with Tim and Aiden on my left and Glen and Spencer on my right. Everyone else is closely behind us the the three kids in the middle. Yes, I included my sister in that group, even though her and Spencer are the same age... logistics.

"What floor is the lab on?" Tim whispers on my left.

"Fifth." I answer just as softly.

"This place is creepy." Glen says and shutters for effect.

"I think I'm gonna have to agree with my brother on this one." Spencer chimes in.

"Well it is a lab, all labs are super creepy." Aiden pipes up.

"Guys we should keep really quiet..." I turn and say to the group, "...we don't know if there are-"

"Too late." Glen says as his eyes go wide and he nods behind me.

"Great!" I half shout as I turn around and load my cross-bow. I take a shot and hit three zombies at once but that means nothing when there are over two dozen running towards you at full speed. Now that I think about it... why do we call them walkers?

"Let's go!" Tim bellows out and takes off to my left where the stairs are. I let the rest of the group follow him, opting to be the last one up. I have the best shot at taking out more walkers. Once the group is in the stairwell I reload my bow twice, taking out four more walkers then take off up the stairs behind the group.

"Ashley!" I hear Spencer shout from somewhere on the stairwell, I guess she didn't realize I'd stayed behind.

"I'm here!" I yell up to her.

"You two are pathetic." Glen says and laughs.

"I will push you down the stairs." Spencer retorts.

I inwardly chuckle as I run up the stairs to catch up with them as fast as I can.

"The door is locked from the inside." Mr. Carlin says in almost a panic. I look down the stairs and see the zombies still hot on our trail. I throw my bow over my shoulder and take a pin from my pocket.

"I can open it." I say, once I reach them. Everyone moves aside to let me work as Tim, Mr. Carlin, Glen, Aiden, and Carmen all post up in case they have to take out some zombies. I stick the pin in the lock and spin it around once, then grab the needle from my pocket and stick that into the lock and lift up and down, then I spin the top pin once more and the lock pops. Spencer looks at me and smiles.

"You're very good at that." She says.

"Lots of practice." I shrug and smile.

"Well it's really—"

"Will you two stop making eye babies so we won't get eaten by zombies please." Kyla speaks up and Angel giggles. I roll my eyes at my sister, as Spencer turns a deep shade of red. Her parent's are right behind us. I guess Kyla forgot about that...or maybe she just didn't care.

"On my count." I tell the group.

"Hurry they're coming." Glen squeals as the zombies climbing the stairs get closer.

"One..." I start the count, readying my knife instead of my bow. "Two...three." I say and yank the door open. I'm usually quicker on my feet, only once has a zombie gotten the best of me. The night Aiden had to save my life.

–

"_Ashley there's walkers over there too!" Kyla shouts to me as we run through an abandoned warehouse. Well, what we thought was an abandoned warehouse. _

"_Kyla keep up!" I shout back to my sister. I'm faster, stronger and more skilled than her so running is easy, fighting is even easier, but keeping her alive for these past couple of months has been not so easy for some reason. Kyla's kinda accident prone. And it's hard to outrun zombies carrying and one hundred pound girl over your shoulder. _

"_Slow down, Ash!" She shouts back up to me. I turn and see that she's winded. We're not gonna outrun them if we stop. _

"_Come on." I tell my sister as I throw her over my shoulder and take off running again, much slower than before. _

"_There's no way out of here." She says looking around._

"_We're gonna be fine." I assure her confidently. There hasn't been a situation I haven't been able to get out of. _

"_Ashley!" Kyla shouts, I turn around with her still in my arms and realize the walkers that were behind us have gained on us and there are two more herds coming from both sides of us. _

"_Ky I need you to run. There's a window over there, climb out and run to the nearest house and hide I'll be-"_

"_I'm not leaving you Ash." She says shaking her head. _

"_I don't have time for this, just go." I tell her and nudge her towards the window. At least one of us can make it out of here alive._

"_Ashley, please-"_

"_Ky go, now!" I shout and she takes off towards the window. A few walkers watch her but none follow. They all have their eyes on me. Wanting to devour every piece of my flesh. "Come on you pieces of shit." I mumble as I load my cross-bow with an arrow. I shoot two of the walkers closest to me and then take off towards the window, with them all right on my tail. I just wanted to give Kyla a head start. Once I reach the window I toss my bow over my shoulder and ready myself to jump through when the unthinkable happens...a walker was closer than I thought. He grabbed my leg and bit it. The scream that erupted from my lips was screeching. The worst pain I've felt in my life. "Shit!" I mumble as I fall through the window. The walkers inside all bang on the glass as I lay on the ground just below the windowsill. I can't make it back to Kyla like this. _

_All those months in a lab, gaining strength, survival skills and smarts...all for nothing. _

"_Need some help?" I look up and see a brown-haired boy standing over me with a wide smile. He holds his hand out for me to take. I quickly cover up my bite mark and take his hand. "Are you okay?" He asks, nodding to my leg._

"_Yeah." I nod coolly. "Just cut it on the glass." I tell him and he nods. _

"_You got camp around here somewhere?" He asks, throwing my around over his shoulder for balance._

"_My sister should be in one of these houses."_

"_Ah! I saw her. She's over there." He says and points to a dark green house fairly close to us. We hear the glass shatter behind us, we both turn around and see the walkers falling over each other to get out of the warehouse. "Looks like we better hurry." The boy says and chuckles. I give him a sideways glance. "I'm Aiden by the way." He smiles down at me, towering a good foot over me._

"_Ashley." I say and return the smile. _

"_Nice to meet you, Ashley." _

–

"Ashley watch out!" Spencer shouts as she stabs the zombie in the back of the head. The blade of the knife came through the other side and landed right between the zombies eyes. Brain matter and blood dripped on my face as Tim and Aiden lifted the lifeless corpse from me. I close my eyes for a moment and sigh. I can't die but I've been bitten before...it doesn't feel good. "You were distracted just now...why?" Spencer asks as she helps me from the ground.

"I was thinking about kissing you." I whisper in her ear. Not a total lie.

"Yuck, you smell like brain." She quips and hands me a towel from her bag.

"How would you know what brains smell like?" I question with a raised brow.

"Cause, you have some right there on your nose." She smiles and takes the towel from my hands, wiping my face for me.

"Is everyone okay?" Tim asks as he shuts the door to the stairwell and locks it back. The zombies on the other side bang and grunt, trying to gain entrance.

"We're fine." I nod, knowing he was asking me in particular.

"Good." He nods. "Now, where is this lab?"

"Down that way." I point down the hall towards a large room covered in plastic.

"Lead the way." He gestures for me to start walking. I nod and head towards the lab, pulling my bow back over my shoulder in case I need to use it.

We all walk down the hall slowly towards the lab, looking out for any stray walkers. Although I seem to be the cure, we don't want anyone becoming an afternoon snack.

"This is it." I say stopping in front of the lab that started this mess. The things they made my mom do...she blamed herself for what happened. I tried to tell her it wasn't her fault that she was just doing her job. But I know deep down she couldn't live with herself for creating this world...for killing so many people.

"You wanna..." Spencer trails off and nods at the door handle. My hand is just sitting there.

"Yeah, I got it." I nod and smile at my girlfriend. I turn the handle on the door and open it. Red eyes shoot to me. A deep snarl escapes her lips as she stands slowly and begins her trek towards me. I see Spencer lift her gun beside me. "No!" Rips from my lips as my hand shoots up to lower Spencer's gun. She looks at me and steps back. The girl continues to slowly make her way to me, dragging her left leg behind her. I look around her and see a body laying on the floor, blood and guts oozing from it. That body is fresh, no more than a few hours old which means there were other people here...still could be here.

"Ashley what are you doing?" Spencer questions softly behind me. I can hear the group starting to become uneasy with how close she is to us now. "Ashley..." Spencer calls my name again. I snap out of it and raise my bow, I close my eyes and release the rope, hitting the girl in the shoulder. I hear collective gasps behind me, I never miss my target. I reload and release the rope again, I hit her in the stomach. She stumbles back before shaking it off and walking towards us again.

"I can't do it." I shake my head as the girl growls and reaches her hands out as she walks towards us.

"Who is she?" Spencer asks.

"Rebecca." Kyla comes from the back of the group and answers for me. "She was... she was a really good friend of the family" From the corner of my eye I see Spencer's face change.

"Glen help me." She says to her brother who doesn't hesitate to help his sister. She walks forward and raises her weapon, shooting Rebecca in both legs causing her to hit the ground. She grabs the towel she'd given me and wraps it around Rebecca's face, before her and Glen lift her up and put her in a chair. "Give me your belt." She tells her brother as she takes off hers and wraps it around Rebecca's right wrist. Glen takes off his and does the same to her left wrist.

"What are you doing?" Angel asks.

"We're gonna cure her. When we figure out how to make the cure we're gonna give it to her first." Spencer tells the group who I'm sure all have look of confusion on their faces.

"Spencer it's dangerous to keep a zombie around, you know that." Mr. Carlin tells his daughter. "What if she breaks free and makes one of us her dinner?" He asks a valid question. I continue to stare at Rebecca; kicking and trying to break her hands free to get a taste of each of us.

"She's like family to Ashley dad, if Ashley is gonna cure everyone else, why shouldn't she be able to cure her family?" Spencer asks and I turn to her, finally breaking my gaze on Rebecca.

"What if it doesn't work on people who've already become zombies?" I ask in a low voice.

She moves closer to me and grabs my hands. "Then we'll figure something out."

"Okay." I nod.

"We should clear this floor at least, so we'll have somewhere safe to stay tonight." Tim tells the group and everyone nods.

"Glen and Aiden come with me, Ashley and Carmen you clear those rooms down there and Spencer, Angel, Arthur and the rest of the group clear through there." Tim tells everyone their assignments and heads off with Glen and Aiden.

"Are you okay?" Spencer asks, turning back to me.

"Mhm." I nod.

"Okay." She says and gives me a small smile before heading off with her group.

"Are you gonna tell her?" Kyla asks me softly as everyone heads off to their designated areas.

"I don't know if I should." I shake my head.

"Better she find out from you then from someone else." Kyla shrugs.

"You're the only other person who knows Kyla, and you're not gonna tell her right?" I question my sister who chuckles.

"And why would I do that?" She asks, before running to catch up with her group.

"Ready to head out Ashley?" Carmen asks from behind me.

"Yeah." I nod and go gently take my bows out of Rebecca. "I thought you were dead beccs, I'm so sorry for leaving you." I whisper to my ex-girlfriend before jogging and catching up with Carmen.


	3. Hope For A Future

I hope everyone enjoys it.

* * *

"_Dad I'm scared." I tell my father as he holds my hand from the bed next to mine. _

"_It's okay sweetheart. I won't let anything happen to you I promise." He smiles a fatherly smile and I feel immediately at ease. "You don't have to do this you know... you didn't have to volunteer, Ashley. We can stop this ri-"_

"_No." I shake my head. "I **want** to do it." I nod and smile slightly. "I'm just...nervous I guess." I shrug and he smiles wide._

"_Understandable. I've been doing these things for over fifteen years now. Nothing's happened yet." He leans closer to me, looking around us briefly then back to me. "I'm sure this serum won't work, just like the others." He whispers then leans back. "Nothing to worry about." He shakes his head and gives me a nose crinkling smile. _

"_How'd you get so wise dad?" I ask and return a smile._

_He takes a deep breath and looks at me, "Hmph...I don't know. Let's hope it's hereditary though." He winks as one of the nurses comes over with two needles in her hand. _

"_Now this isn't going to hurt one bit, after the injection we ask that you stay still for at least an hour." My dad and I both nod as the nurse preps the needles. She sticks my father first. He winces for a moment but then relaxes and gives me a reassuring smile._

"_Your turn sweetie." The nurse turns to me and says. "You're our youngest one yet." She adds and smiles as she sticks the needle in my arm. It stings for only a moment as the needle penetrates my skin. When she pulls the needle out of drop of blood runs down my arm quicker than she can put the gauze to it. "Here, hold this on here to stop the bleeding." She says grabbing my hand, replacing hers with it to hold the gauze. "Remember, try to remain still." She adds before leaving. _

"_You alright honey?"My dad asks from beside me. _

"_I'm fine." I half lie. The injection site is burning now. Is this a normal reaction?_

"_Try to get some rest. The burning will stop in a moment." He says and I turn to face him. _

"_You feel that too?" I question. He nods and smiles. _

"_It's alright. I'm sure it's normal." He tells me. I nod and turn away from him. I hope so. I think as I close my eyes._

–

"I heard what you and your sister were talking about back there." Carmen says to me as we walk into a room, weapons up, ready to fire on anything that moves.

"I-It isn't what you think." I stumble out.

"I don't think anything." She shakes her head and glances at me. "It isn't any of my business. But Spencer has been like a daughter to me these past months and I'd hate to see her get hurt." She says and turns in the other direction.

"I know and I would never hurt her." I try. Carmen turns back to me with narrowed eyes.

"I will hurt you, Ashley. It may be difficult, but I'll do it if you hurt Spencer." She says and I can tell she means every word of it. Spencer is so lucky to have all these people who care about her.

"I promise that I won't." I shake my head, hoping my words are enough. That she can see I mean every bit of it. I would never intentionally hurt Spencer. She means everything to me.

"Good." She says giving me a hard look then turns away again. I guess that's the end of that conversation. "Two." Carmen whispers and points just to our left. Two zombies are fighting over what's left of a person. They growl and snap at each other as they try to finish off the small amount of flesh left on the person's leg. The body is unrecognizable now. Devoured down to the bone. "You wanna..." She trails off and nods in their direction. I nod once and load my bow. I aim directly for the zombie on the left's head. I get it right in the temple. This causes the other one to turn and face us, it jumps up, the smell of our flesh enticing it. It takes off in our direction but I already have my second arrow loaded. I hit this one right in between the eyes. It hits the ground with a loud umph.

"You're so good with that thing." Carmen turns to me and smiles. I shrug and return the smile before walking over to the zombies and removing my arrows from their skulls.

"I'm gonna need to make more arrows. I'm running low." I point out as I wipe the brain off my arrows and stick them back in the pack on my back.

"We'll see if we can find you some supplies around here." Carmen says.

After clearing the rest of our area we headed back to the lab. Everyone was waiting on us.

"We're all clear." Tim says.

"Us too." Spencer says as she comes and stands next to me.

"I guess we can do lunch before starting on the files." Tim says and everyone nods. "We can clear some other floors tomorrow. Maybe secure the entire building. That way we wouldn't have to worry about anything while we're here."

"Good idea." Arthur speaks up.

"Jo and I will start on lunch." Paula says. Francisco and Jessica take off down the hall, probably playing a game of tag.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Spencer leans over and whispers in my ear.

"Sure." I whisper back and nod. She pulls me back in the direction Carmen and I just came from as everyone else walks off to different areas. "What's up?" I ask Spencer when everyone is out of earshot.

"I got this for you." She says holding up a syringe.

"Why?" I question, looking down at the needle a bit confused.

"We're gonna try your blood on Rebecca." She says simply.

"I don't think we should, what if she gets worse?"

"What can be worse than that?" She asks pointing down the hall to the lab.

What if it works and she gets better... what would I tell Spencer? At least with Rebecca like this I have more time.

"Okay." I nod and she smiles.

She hands me the syringe and kisses my cheek. "I'm gonna give you some privacy. I'm here if you need me." I nod as she walks away. I walk slowly down the hall to the lab, opening and shutting the door behind myself. Rebecca gets a whiff of my scent and begins to struggle in the chair.

"Rebecca." I call her name like she can understand me. And maybe she can... or maybe she can't. I don't know. "Rebecca." I say again, taking the towel from her face. She chomps at me, growling and grunting as she tries to eat my flesh, but the restraints pull her back each time. "I'm gonna try to fix you." I whisper to her. "Apparently, I'm the cure." I chuckle a bit before looking at her again. Her pale gray skin and blood red eyes only understand one thing, humans equal food. I take the needle and stick it in my arm drawing blood, taking the same needle and sticking it into Rebecca's arm.

She calms briefly like she knows I'm trying to help her. For a split second it's as if she stares into my eyes and all the grunting, growling, and moving to break free ceases.

Did it work?

…...

And then the Rebecca I knew is gone again. Our moment is over and she's chomps at me again. "Argh, ugnh." She grunts and I stumble backwards. All her teeth show as she continues to lift her head from the chair, hoping to get a taste of my flesh.

"I'm sorry." I whisper as I get up from the floor and rush out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I lean against the door and close my eyes, suddenly unable to breathe. This is all too much.

"It didn't..." Spencer trails off when I open my eyes. I guess she can tell just by my face. "I'm sorry." She shakes her head and wraps her arms around me.

"Lunch is ready." Angel says from beside us. "Ashley you okay?" She asks once Spencer and I turn to face her.

"She's fine." Spencer answers for me. "We'll be there in a sec. Thanks Angel." She smiles a friendly smile.

"Yeah." Angel nods. "No problem." She adds before walking away.

"Do you want a moment?" Spencer turns back to me and asks.

"No." I shake my head. "I'm fine."

"Okay, come on then." She says and helps me from the door. I turn and take another look at Rebecca. I can only hope that we can create a cure so I can save her. She deserves at least that.


	4. EXcuses, Excuses

Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Happy New Years.

* * *

"_I'm not really in the mood today dad, can we just not go in today?" I ask and he smiles._

"_We can't not go in, Ashley. This is our work. We don't take sick days from the CIA." He leans in and whispers the last part. Kyla is in the living room watching T.V, my mom has already headed to work at the CDC lab downtown and my dad and I are finishing up breakfast before heading out._

"_I really just want to lay in bed all day." I tell him with a pout._

"_Is this about Jasmine?" He questions, grabbing both our plates from the table and placing them in the sink._

"_How'd you know?" I turn and asks._

"_I'm your father Ashley, we're not as oblivious as our kids would like to think." He says and smiles as he comes and sits next to me at the table. "What happened?"_

"_We broke up." I say simply._

"_I gathered." He chuckles. "Did something happened?" _

"_Ky was right, she was liar." I say, shaking my head. I should have listened to my sister and I guess this is the price I have to pay. A broken heart and a fragile soul._

"_Do I need to-"_

"_No dad." I cut him off shaking my head. "Don't send anyone to her house." I add and he smiles. _

"_Well, if someone breaks my little girl's heart I tend to want to break some bones, or at least a pinky." He says as his lips curl up into a smile._

"_It's fine. I learned my lesson, never fall in love too quickly. Only bad things can happen." I say and drop my head. _

"_Lift your head up." My dad says firmly, putting a finger under my chin. "Never let a relationship define your happiness, sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't, that's just the way life is sweetheart." He says looking directly into my eyes._

"_Okay daddy." I say and smile. He really does always know the right thing to say. _

"_Now let's go to work before the CIA comes looking for us." He smiles and stands, helping me to my feet._

–

"What's the first step in this process Ashley?" Tim asks as everyone gathers around to listen.

"I tried my blood on Rebecca." I tell the group and everyone looks at me expectantly. "It didn't work." I add and drop my head. Spencer rubs my shoulder comfortingly. I really don't know what I'll do if we make some kind of serum or vaccine but it doesn't work on the people who are already zombies. I can't shoot Rebecca...clearly.

"That doesn't mean that the already dead can't be cured." Arthur says. "Maybe there are other variables that need to be added to the cure."

"I'm not sure, but I can get started on research now." I say and stand.

"We're not done with lunch yet, though." Spencer says pointing to my untouched bowl of rice and beans.

"I'm not hungry." I tell my girlfriend and shake my head. "Aiden could you..." I trail off, but Aiden gets it cause he's already following me.

"Ash are you okay?" He asks once we're far enough away from the group. I shake my head. "What's wrong?" He moves closer to me and asks. Aiden has never seen me so vulnerable, maybe except the time he saved my life but even then I kept my emotions in check. That's the one thing the CIA taught me that they said would save my life, I mean, besides the obvious other skills. They said to never let anyone get too close, to never let my guard down around another person because everyone should be considered a threat, whether that be to your safety or your sanity.

I broke my own rules and let Spencer in...she's too close and now my emotions have a mind of their own. I don't control them anymore. I fell in love at a time where I need to be on my game the most. She's invaded every part of me now I'm consumed and it's probably clouding my judgment.

"That girl in there..." I pause and turn to look in the lab where Rebecca sits, strapped to a chair, steady trying to break free. "...she's my ex girlfriend." I finally get out and Aiden's eyes go wide.

"Wow." He breathes out.

"Yeah." I nod and grimace. I know exactly what he's thinking.

"It's funny how we're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse yet the universe still makes time for some good old-fashioned ex girlfriend drama." He says and chuckles.

"I don't know what to do, should I tell Spencer?" I ask him and he shakes his head vigorously.

"Absolutely no way, hell no." He says.

"Why not? What if we figure out the cure and cure her?" I ask.

"And what if we don't?" He responds. "Look I'm not trying to tell you what to do or anything because ultimately it's your decision, but if you want my advice..." He pauses and looks at me.

"Please." I nod.

"Don't tell her anything until you know that Rebecca will be a factor. There's no point in risking losing Spencer and you don't even know if this will work yet."

"You're right." I nod and say after a moment. A small smile creeps on my lips.

"What?" He asks, smiling as well now.

"I never knew there was a brain in there." I tell him and ruffle his hair.

He slaps my hand away. "Well if you and Kyla would ever let me get two words in you'd know that I can actually form complete sentences." He rebuttals.

"Touché." I chuckle out.

"I'm gonna back to Glen, you okay?" He asks and I nod.

"Can I help?" Spencer asks, coming up behind Aiden. Aiden points in the other direction, I nod and he leaves.

"Sure." I smile at my girlfriend.

–

"_You're gonna be with your mom today, they're working on some new serum so we're gonna spend the next few months giving blood and things of that nature." My dad says as we ride the elevator up to my moms floor. I never understood why the CIA special operations and the CDC were in the same building, that is, until my dad told me about a serum the CDC were working on that directly connected the two entities. I've volunteered for the CIA's special forces for a little over two months now. Once when I came with my dad to his job he had me take a test, he didn't tell me what it was for or anything but after I took it all these people from the CIA came into the room and started congratulating me and shaking my hand. I found out later that I scored the highest ever on the CIA's skills and intelligence exam. Apparently, I was born to be a spy. I guess like father like daughter._

"_All day, I have to be with mom?" I question and whine. My dad smiles and nods. _

"_I'll be in meetings all day. I'm sure you'll have fun with your mom Ashley." He says as the elevator dings and the doors open._

"_Right." I say sarcastically._

"_I'll see you later, sweetheart." He chuckles and kisses my forehead then gets back on the elevator. I roll my eyes then walk down the hall towards my moms lab._

"_Mom." I call out when I don't see anyone._

"_Oh Ashley, hello honey." She smiles as she comes and hugs me. _

"_Hey mom." I say mundanely then sit down in a swivel chair. "So what are we doing today?" I ask as I spin around in the chair._

"_You're welcome to watch my new intern and I, create this new serum. It's gonna take a while to complete but we're starting the first step in the process today." My mother says cheerfully. She's always loved her job as a scientist. I'm pretty sure I got my intelligence from her and my badassness from my dad. Such a great combination. _

"_Sounds boring." I say as I continue to spin in the chair, head leaning over the back. And that's when I saw her for the first time. The blonde haired, green-eyed beauty. "Holy sh..." I trail off, spinning around and sitting up. My mom smiles at my reaction. _

"_This is Rebecca my new intern, Rebecca this is my daughter Ashley." My mother introduces us. I stand up from the chair and walk towards her. _

"_Hi." She smiles at me._

_Jasmine who?..._


	5. The Right Combination

I didn't realize how short this chapter was. Maybe I'll put up another one sooner than usual. Hope you enjoy it either way. :)

* * *

"_How much more blood do you have to draw?" I ask the nurse as she sticks another needle in my arm. They've already drawn a pint. _

"_Just one more pint, sweetie." She says and smiles as the blood flows throw the tube connected to the needle and into a bag. _

"_And what exactly am I giving this blood for?" I ask and she looks at me._

"_For test." She says simply. _

"_What kinda test?" I question._

"_We're gonna test a bunch of different things on it before actually giving anything to you. We want to see how the antibodies in your blood react to them." She explains and I nod._

_"Then what?" I ask and she gives me a puzzled look. "After you do all those tests on my blood, what happens next?" I ask her. _

"_I'll be right back." The short woman says before quickly shuffling off. _

"_Okaaaay." I mumble to myself. _

"_Francis isn't your enemy you know." I small voice comes up behind me and says. _

"_Huh?" I turn around and see the girl from yesterday, Rebecca. _

"_Francis, the nurse." She says pointing in the direction the older woman just disappeared to. _

"_I didn't say she-"_

_"She's just doing her job, I'm sure they don't tell her much." She says sitting down in the chair next to me._

"_I was just asking some harmless questions." _

"_Questions that she probably doesn't have the answer to."_

"_So I shouldn't ask because there's a possibility that she doesn't know?" I question with a raised brow._

"_Or you could try asking the right questions." She retorts._

"_Which are?" I rebuttal._

_She purses her lips and shrugs, "Figure it out." Is her reply before she gets up from the chair and walks out the way she came. _

–

"How much research are we going to look through?" Spencer asks as we continue to go through files.

"I just wanna look over the files from every volunteer, you know, before the outbreak. I wanna see why it worked for me but killed everyone else." I tell her, never taking my eyes off the file in my hand.

"But..." She starts, lifting my head to look at her. "...you shouldn't over work yourself. We have time Ashley. You don't have to read two hundred files in one night." She finishes with a smile. I can't help but smile back.

"I know." I nod. "I just really want to." I don't how to tell her that I really need to this done now so I can find a cure for Rebecca. How do you tell your girlfriend something like that?

"Okay baby." She smiles and shakes her head. "I'm gonna get some shut-eye or I'll pass out. Come to bed soon?" She asks and I nod. "I love you." She leans in and kisses my lips quickly.

"I love you too." I reply. She walks off down the hall to the room we've taken as ours for the time being. We're not sharing a room with anyone, Kyla elected to share a room with Angel. She didn't want to listen to us make out all night, she said.

I sigh and drop the file I was holding on the ground. At this rate I won't have any time to even sleep tonight, let alone make out with my girlfriend.

I stare down at the files scattered around the floor.

You know what... fuck this.

I get up and run after Spencer.

"Oh hey." Spencer says looking out the tent when she hears the door open. She turns on the lantern as I get in the tent next to her. "I thought you were gonna pull an all niter?" She questions, but zips up the tent anyways.

"I just really needed to do this." I say, leaning in and kissing her.

"What was that for?" She asks once we pull back from the kiss.

I shrug. "For being you."

"You're different you know." She says as we lay down, facing each other.

"Different how?" I question.

"When we first met you were so...guarded and now you let me in on a lot of things instead of pulling away."

"Well you're my girlfriend now and I wouldn't want to lose you because of something stupid." I tell her and she smiles. You know except the whole, 'the zombie you're trying to save is my ex girlfriend thing.' "You're different too you know." I add after a moment.

"Nope." She shakes her head. "I'm the same Spencer you met in that house that you drew your gun on." She adds and smiles. I return the smile and giggle a little.

"You thought I was going to shoot you, didn't you?" I ask her and she nods.

"I really did." She chuckles. "You looked like you were pretty skilled with your gun, I didn't wanna take any chances."

"I wouldn't have shot you." I shake my head. "You're way to cute to shoot." I add and smile.

She lifts up her shirt to show me her gunshot wound. "Maybe someone should have told that asshole from Angel's group that." She says smiling.

"I did." I nod. "Right as I took my arrow out of his neck." I add and she laughs.

"My hero." She kisses me and pulls back quickly.

"What is it?" I ask, reading the worried look on her face.

"Do you think we'll be able to pull this off? Like find the right combination to make the cure, mass produce it, and then get it out to everyone...everywhere?" She asks. I stare at her for a moment, not really knowing the answer to her question. I don't know if we'll be able to make it, let alone distribute it.

"I don't know." I shrug and opt to tell the truth. "But I really hope so. We have the opportunity to save humanity, we would be like hero's." I add and chuckle.

"And you can be the president of our new country." She says and smiles.

"Nooooo." I shake my head. "Way too much responsibility, but Tim would make a great president, don't you think?"

"He would, wouldn't he?" She asks and I nod.

"He's like a born leader or something. It's hard to believe he was only military police before all this." I say.

"Yeah." Spencer agrees. We both get silent before I notice Spencer's eyes slowly closing.

"You should get some sleep baby, I'm gonna go back to-"

"No." She cuts me off. "Stay with me please." She begs, scooting her body closer to mine to snuggle. I wrap my arm around her stomach, my front to her back, and kiss the back of her neck.

"Okay, I'll stay." I tell her and she sighs contently. I lean over her to cut off the lantern and I'm surprised at how quickly we both fall into a deep sleep.


	6. Redefining Roles

Hope you guys enjoy the chapter. The next update won't be up until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. Let me know what you think of the chapter.

* * *

"This is gonna be a big task everyone. This building has nine more floors and bunch of rooms. This could take all day." I tell the group as everyone gears up to head out, we've decided to clear the entire building today. And to make sure it's secure, meaning all doors and window locked and possibly boarded.

"This is seriously gonna take all day." Aiden whines.

"It needs to be done." Arthur says.

"Does it though? I don't really see the point. It's not like we're planing on staying here forever, we just need to find a cure and be done with this place." Glen chimes in.

"We want to have a safe facility to work in though, son." Arthur tells his son who rolls his eyes and nods.

"Jo and I are going to stay here with the kids and everyone can meet back here at in five hours for lunch." Paula tells the group and everyone nods.

"I'm going." Kyla says standing up from the floor.

"No you're not." I shake my head. "You're staying here, where someone can keep an eye on you." I tell her sternly.

"I'm tired of you treating me like a baby Ashley!" She half shouts at me. Where is this coming from? "Spencer and I..." I should've known this was about Spencer. "...are the same age and you don't see anyone treating her like a kid." Kyla pleads her case. Glancing at Spencer when she said her name.

"Technically-"

"Did I ask you?" Kyla turns to Spencer and asks. Spencer smiles then pretends to zip her lips and throw away the key.

"Kyla don't talk to her that way." I interject.

"It's fine." Spencer waves it off with a smile.

"I'm not a kid anymore Ashley, I'm almost seventeen. Mom and dad aren't here, so stop treating me like a baby." She finishes and everyone looks at me for my response. What do I say? She's not a baby anymore but that doesn't mean she doesn't still need protecting.

"I don't know Ky, I don't think..." I trail off as she stares at me with narrowed eyes. "Fine." I say through a sigh. "But you're coming with my group so I can keep an eye on you and you're not allowed to have a gun." I tell her shaking my head.

"You're kidding right?" She questions with a raised brow.

"Those are my conditions." I tell my little sister. "Here." I hand her my pocket knife. "This will do."

"This is ridiculous." She says shaking her head as she takes the knife.

"That's all you're getting Kyla so take it or leave it." I tell her with a shrug.

"Fine." She says and walks away from me.

"Are we ready to head out?" I turn and ask the rest of the group, everyone is smiling at the scene that just unfolded between Kyla and myself. She may be getting older but I'll do everything I have to, to protect her.

–

"_You should probably take your hands off my sister." I tell the man who's holding Kyla down to the ground. Kyla and I have been on our own now for quite some time and we haven't come across any people...any alive people anyway, since the outbreak started. That is until now. _

"_Or what?" The guy holding her down asks with a smirk. He doesn't know me...he doesn't know what I can do. I'm trying to keep my composure because I don't want to hurt the four men trying to take our things right now, but they aren't making this easy. _

"_Just do it." I tell the guy, shaking my head. The four of them chuckle and the one holding Kyla turns back to her. "Okay, I tried." I mumble and shrug as I break free from the two men holding me. I turn and kick the one on my left in the stomach as the one on my right takes a swing at me, I duck and he misses, my left fist connecting with his jaw. _

"_Stop her." The man holding Kyla, I'm guessing the leader of the four idiots, yells to the other guy. The idiot that I hadn't hit yet. He runs towards me, I roll my eyes before spinning as he punches at me, and hitting him in the back. He drops to his knees and my foot connects with the back of his head. The other two men charge me. I chop idiot one in the throat as idiot three gets a cheap shot into my side. I pull myself back together as idiot one hits the ground holding his throat and I uppercut idiot two. Idiot three recovers from the kick to the head, jumping on my back. I fling him off on idiot two and they both hit the ground._

"_At least make it a little difficult for me." I shake my head at the three grown men laying on the ground. _

"_Stop!" The man who was holding Kyla shouts. I turn around to see a gun pointed at me. The three other men groan as they get up from the ground. I reach into my pocket and take out my knife. The leader chuckles. "You just brought a knife to a gun fight." He says in a condescending tone._

_I smirk before flicking my knife open and quickly tossing it at the mans hand. It goes straight into the back of his hand. "Ow!" He shrieks, as the gun falls from his hand. Kyla quickly scrambles to pick it up. _

"_Now, you can leave voluntarily or I can make you leave." I tell the men as Kyla points a gun at the leader. He looks back between me and Kyla before turning his men and nodding his head to the left. I guess signaling that they're gonna leave voluntarily. I turn around and all three men give me a hard look before walking off, without our things. "I'll take this back." I say, walking over to the man and snatching my knife out of his hand. He lets out another scream but doesn't dare give me a second glance as Kyla still has the gun pointed at him. He scoffs then walks off with the other men. _

"_Nice moves." Kyla says once the men are out of sight. _

"_No biggie." I shrug._

"_I'm starting to think that dad did a lot more than just give you tours when he took you to work." She says looking down at the gun, admiring it._

"_Give me that." I say and take the gun out of my sister's hand. I really don't want to go into what went on at the C.I.A. Especially not right now._

"_Can't I keep it?" She asks me as I put it into the back of my jeans._

"_Not a chance." I shake my head._

"_When are you gonna stop treating me like a child Ashley? If you haven't noticed..." She says gesturing around us, "...we're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. There's no time for you to hover." She finishes with a hand on her hip._

"_You're still not getting a gun." I shake my head and smile at my sister._

"_You suck." She tells me with narrowed eyes as we gather up our scattered things and head in the opposite direction of the men. _

–

"I bet you got your first gun when you were like five right?" Glen asks as we clear another room.

"No." I chuckle and shake my head.

"Six?" He questions.

"No."

"Seven?"

"Glen will you leave my girlfriend alone!" Spencer scolds her brother. He's been asking me questions nonstop since we started clearing the building.

"Well she shouldn't be so mysterious and intriguing."

"Really?" Aiden turns to his boyfriend and asks. Glen shrugs.

"I should have gone with Tim's group." Kyla says behind us.

"Walker." Glen says from the front of the group.

"Ashley." Aiden says and I know what he's asking.

"Got it." I tell them. Him and Glen duck, I raise my bow, pull back and release the string hitting the walker in its left eye.

"Nice shot." Glen commends me.

"So should I pull down her pants or did you wanna do that part yourself?" Aiden asks his boyfriend. Spencer and I snicker.

"Let's separate guys, we can cover more ground that way. Meet back here in ten?" I ask and everyone nods. "Ky where are you going?" I ask my sister as she starts to walk off with Glen and Aiden.

"With them." She tells me simply without so much as a second glance back at me.

"Is everything okay with her?" Spencer asks me as we start to walk in the opposite direction as the others.

"I'm not sure." I turn to my girlfriend and say. Her lips curl up in a smile.

"I don't think she likes me as your girlfriend very much anymore."

"Oh, so she did at first?" I question her with a smile.

"She talked to me about not hurting you so I was assuming she was giving me her blessing." She says and shrugs.

"I'm gonna talk to her, see what's-"

"She probably just feels like she's losing you or something, like she's not the only girl in your life anymore. It was just the two of you for a while right?" Spencer asks, cutting me off. I smile at her.

"Yeah." I nod. I was thinking the exact same thing. It's amazing how much Spencer and I think alike.

"Well if I were her, I'd probably be acting the exact same way." She moves close to me and says. "I'd want all your attention too." She adds and smiles.

"Spencer Carlin." I say in a sultry tone, flipping my bow onto my back and pulling her closer to me. "Don't start something you can't finish." I tell her looking straight into her eyes.

"Who says I can't finish?" She questions with a raised brow.

"Oh." Is my reply as I pull her into a kiss. We're in the hallway and I don't want her brother or my sister to sneak up on us so I open the door closest to us and back her in, never breaking our kiss. I kick the door closed as we move further into the room.

"I really love you." She says pulling back, out of breath.

"I love you more." I say before reconnecting our lips.

"Argh. Ungh." Spencer and I hear and we immediately freeze. In our kissing frenzy we didn't realize that we'd walked into a room that we hadn't cleared yet.

"Ashley." Spencer whispers.

"I can't see anything." I tell her already knowing what she's asking me.

"Can we run?" She asks.

"I don't know where the door is." I whisper back. "Move behind me. I tell Spencer and she does it. I try to focus my eyes to see where the walkers are and how many there are but I can't see anything. Ironic that we chose the room with no windows to make out in. "Search for the door." I tell Spencer, digging in my pocket for my knife. Shit. I forgot I gave it to Kyla. "Give me your knife." I whisper to Spencer. I hear movement before I feel a sharp pain in my arm. I shriek and realize I'm now on the ground with a walker on top of me trying to eat me.

"Ashley!" Spencer yells out and I'm assuming runs towards me. I know that I can't die from a walker bite but it doesn't mean they can't still eat me. "Ashley don't move." She tells me and then I don't hear anything but the sound of the walker grunting on top of me and Spencer's heavy breathing, like she's fighting something. I try to push the walker off me, to no avail, as something hits the ground with a loud umph followed by another one.

"Spencer!" I shout. Not being able to see what's going on is really not the funnest thing in the world. Spencer doesn't answer me, I go to call her name again as the walker that was struggling on top of me falls limp onto my body. I throw it from me and scoot backwards until my back hits a wall. I take my bag off my back and take out my flashlight.

"Ashley." Spencer calls to me as I shine the light on her, then around her. There are three dead walkers laying on the ground, including the one she just saved me from.

"How'd you...what did you...wow." Is all I'm able to get out. Spencer's lip curl up into a smile.

"Glen and I played hide and seek in the dark a lot." Is all she says, still smiling at me. I shine the light back on the walkers, lifting myself up from my position on the floor. I walk over to them and see they all have stab wounds right between the eyes.

"Impressive." I turn to my girlfriend and say.

"Lucky." She shrugs, standing up. "This room is clear." She adds and smiles.

"Thanks to you." I shine the light down on the bite mark on my hand.

"It's nice to be able to save your life everyone once in a while." She smiles. "Oh wow, it's healing already." Spencer says examining it.

"Yeah, it um...it kinda does that." I tell her.

"Wow." She turns to me and says then looks back at my hand. "How long before it completely heals?" She asks as we walk out of the room.

"I don't know." I shrug. "An hour maybe. I've only even been bitten once, it wasn't this bad." I say looking at my hand again. "Let's not tell Ky about this k." I turn to Spencer and say.

She chuckles and nods her head, "We wouldn't want to give her another reason to dislike me."

"Now that I think about it, maybe we should tell her. Maybe if she knows you saved my life she'll stop being such a-"

"Sister." Spencer interjects with a smile.

"Let's go and meet back up with the group before they come looking for us."


	7. Research

I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know some of you have been waiting on this so...here you go.

* * *

"How many floors did we clear already?" Tim asks as everyone gathers around and eats lunch.

"We cleared four." Aiden speaks up for our group.

"How did you..." Tim trails off and looks at me. "Never mind." He shrugs. "That's six altogether. We've only got four more to go." Tim nods proudly.

"I think I want to start working on the cure. The more time I waste the less chance that-"

"Yeah." Tim nods, cutting me off. "The rest of us can handle the last three floors." He tells me.

"I wanna stay here and help you." Spencer leans over and whispers in my ear.

"You don't have to." I turn to her and say.

"I want to." She nods and smiles.

"Everyone about done here. I want to finish this up before night fall." Tim says and everyone starts to clean up.

"How are we splitting this up, same groups again?" Carmen asks.

"Let's get this done quickly and go smaller." Tim says and looks around. "How about: Glen, Aiden and Kyla; Angel, Spencer and Carmen; Arthur, Jayden and myself." Tim suggests.

"We'll have these three floors knocked out in no time." Arthur nods.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could stay and help Ashley with the research." Spencer speaks up.

"We kinda need you-"

"No, it's okay." Angel cuts Tim off. "Carmen and I can handle it." She assures him.

"Carmen?" Tim turns to Carmen who nods once. "Well okay then." He says checking his gun and then holstering it. "Let's head out." Everyone follows him to the stairwell.

"You know you really don't have to stay, Spence." I tell my girlfriend.

"I know, but I feel like we don't spend any time together anymore." She pouts as we get up and walk down towards the lab.

"I'm sorry." I tell her and lean over and kiss her temple. "Once we figure out this cure I'm sure things will go back to how they were." I try to assure her.

"I can't wait that long." She smirks and pushes me into the lab. She shuts the door behind us and pulls down all the blinds.

"Spencer what are you doing?" I question with a raised brow as Rebecca grunts and growls from the chair in the corner.

"What we didn't get to finish earlier." She says in a soft voice walking back over to me. She grabs the back of my head and pulls me into a deep kiss. I moan at the contact. I feel like it's been forever since I've felt her lips against mine. But I know it was only a couple of hours ago. Spencer has that affect on you.

"Spencer your mom is right down-"

"I don't care." She cuts me off. She unbuttons my shirt and practically rips it off my body, she tosses it behind us and does the same with her shirt.

"You really think this is the right place for this..." I trail off, looking at around her at Rebecca. She turns and looks at her before turning back to me with a smirk.

"She'll enjoy the show, trust me." She bites the corner of her lips as her hand slips between us and begins to unbuckle my jeans. I reconnect our lips as my hand snakes around her back and unclasps her bra. She stops what she's doing to allow her bra to fall off her shoulders to the floor.

"I love you." I tell her, lifting her head so her eyes could meet mine.

She smiles a little before kissing me again. Her lips telling me everything she wants right now. Everything that I need to give her. "I love you, too." She mumbles into my lips as she finally gets my pants undone. We slowly allow our bodies to go towards the ground. I pull the blanket off the desk and lay it under her.

"You're so beautiful." I tell the blonde underneath me.

"Ashley, kiss me." She tells me impatiently, pulling my head back down. My hand moves between our bodies as I undo her pants and pull them down. I move my body between her legs and she moans when my knee makes contact with her center. I shimmy out of my pants and reposition myself back between her legs. I place barely there kisses on her neck making my way down to her breast. She moans each time my lips make contact with her skin and it only turns me on more. I make my way down her body. Circling her belly button as I pass it.

This is nothing like our first time. We semi rushed, we didn't want the boys to come knocking.

–

"_Are you okay with this?" I ask her, barely above a whisper. I can tell she's unsure. I don't want to make her do anything she isn't ready for. I know she's going over every possibility in her head and as much as I don't want to force her, I'm hoping she won't say no. I grab the bottom of her shirt, asking her permission to take it off with my eyes, she lifts her arms above her head so I take it off. "Are you sure?" I ask her, praying for a yes. When she doesn't answer immediately, I pull back and stare into her eyes. She looks scared but she also looks like she wants this just as much as I do. We haven't known each other for very long but in a world like this, to find love in the midst of hell on earth, it's a blessing. And I don't want to lose her. _

_When she pulls me into a passionate kiss, I know what she's telling me. The physical words won't leave her lips but her body is speaking for her. We both get completely undressed and I push her gently against the shower wall. Kissing every inch of her neck. _

_Tasting her. _

_Craving her. _

_Needing her. _

"_Ashley." She whispers...barely audible. I lift up from her neck and look at her. Her eyes are begging me to do it. Begging me to go to a place no one has ever gone before. A place I will be the first and hopefully only person to go. I nod and bring my hand around from her side, moving it between her legs. I let it dance on the outside of her folds, moving my fingers up and down as Spencer moans softly in my ear. I want to go in so badly, but I don't want to rush this. I want to take my time, but I know it isn't possible with my idiot friend and her brother right outside. _

"_Are you ready?" I whisper in her ear. I feel her nod against my shoulder. I lift her legs to wrap around my waist, holding her up with one arm as the wall supports most of her weight. I take deep breath to prepare myself for what I'm about to do, like it's my first time. _

"_Just do it." Spencer moans out and it spurs me on. I take the hand that's between her legs and push my fingers into her folds. _

"_Fuck, you're so wet." I moan out as her body begins to rock gently into my fingers. _

"_I want you, Ashley." She tells me. Bringing an arm from around my neck and using it to push my fingers into her pussy. "Fuck!" She moans out when two of my fingers enter her. _

"_Spencer." I moan. She feels so amazing. I pump my fingers in and out of her and I feel her walls begin to contract around them._

"_Something's happening." She moans out in a whisper._

"_You're gonna cum." I tell her._

"_Ashley..." She moans._

"_Just let go Spencer, it's okay. I'll catch you." I tell her and she does. She cums all over my fingers, her body begins to quiver and shake. The wall is no longer holding her up, just me. I gently bring us down to the shower floor. _

"_I love you." She says through heavy breaths._

"_I love you more." I smile and kiss her lips. After she regains her composure we shower and head out to meet back up with the boys._

"_Why are you smiling, idiot?" Spencer asks her brother as we exit the police station._

"_Oh, no reason." He says as him and Aiden share a look. They know._

"_You think we should tell the others about the shower?" Aiden asks._

_We all look at each other for a moment. "Nah." We answer in unison, shaking our heads. I grab Spencer's hand in mine as we head back._

–

This time I feel like we have all the time in the world. Like no one else exists right now but Spencer and myself.

"Spencer did you and Ashley want..." Paula's words die in her throat when she sees the scene on the floor. Me...on top of her almost fully naked daughter.

"Mom!" Spencer shrieks and hurries to cover herself up with the blanket she was laying on.

"Mrs. Carlin, I'm so-"

"Research huh?" Mrs. Carlin cuts me off with a smile.

"Uh..." I turn and look at Spencer who looks like a deer caught in headlights. "Yes ma'am." I turn back the her and say.

Her smile grows wider before she says, "Well, lucky it was me and not your father to walk in here while you two were doing... research."

"Mom could you..." Spencer trails off, making wide eyes at her mother.

"Yes." Paula nods. "You too um..." She pauses and narrows her eyes at us. "...be safe." She says and closes the door behind her.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry Ashley my mom is a total-"

"It's okay." I chuckle and lean in to kiss her. She was clearly about to hyperventilate.

"It's not okay, my mom just totally walked in on us." She says, her face turning red.

"Not the first time a parent has walked in on me." I joke, but Spencer hits me. "Ouch!" I shriek. "I was kidding." I chuckle and tell her.

"Not funny." She shakes her head.

"Fine." I shrug and rub my arm, getting up from the floor.

"What are you doing?" Spencer asks looking up at me.

"Getting dressed." I raise a brow at her.

"Why?" She asks standing. "My mom said to be safe...that means she's okay with it." Spencer wiggles her eyebrows and I giggle.

"You're cute." I tell her. "But, I'm not really in the mood anymore."

She sighs and picks up her discarded clothes. "Fine."

"No pouting." I say kissing it away.

"Let's just do this research shall we?" She says as she pulls her shirt down over her head.

"I promise there will be another time for this." I say pulling my girlfriend into a hug, sensing her irritation. "Okay?" I ask, putting a finger under her chin to make her look at me. She's trying to avoid my eyes. "Okay?" I ask again once I finally get her to focus her eyes on mine.

"Okay." She drawls out, rolling her eyes and smiling.

"You're a stubborn one, Spencer Carlin." I say in a sing-song voice.

"First I was the Grinch and now I'm stubborn. You're losing major points with me, Ashley Davies." She says but smiles.

"I'll make it up, I promise." I peck her lips then kiss her nose.

"Mhm." She nods and smiles. "We better start on this before I change my mind and take my clothes off again. My dad should be coming back anytime now." She teases, playing with the bottom of her shirt.

"Okay, Okay." I tell her holding my hands up. I don't want her dad to walk in on us today too.

"So, research." She smiles.

"Yes Spencer, research." I respond with a smile.

"Okay." She says and rolls her eyes again. "Where do we start?"


	8. The Early Stages

Things are really going to start picking up now. More about Rebecca and more about figuring out the cure. Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

* * *

"It starts with her." I nod in Rebecca's direction as I walk over to the file cabinet and grab three files.

"What do you mean?" Spencer asks, confusion evident in her tone."

"To create a vaccine is a really long process Spencer." I start, looking through the files.

"That didn't answer my question." I turn and see she's smiling.

"Sorry." I shake my head and smile back. "We need to study the virus so we can know how to vaccinate against it." I try to explain.

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" She questions with a raised brow.

"That's where she comes in." I point to Rebecca. "I'm gonna draw some of her blood and take some saliva to study."

"Ew." She makes a face then smiles.

"That's the process, Spencer." I smile at my girlfriend, moving closer to her. "I understand if you can't handle it though." I lean in close and whisper.

"Oh, I can handle it." She whispers back.

"What are we even talking about anymore?" I question her with a raised brow. My voice barely above a whisper.

"You tell me." She says, barely audible. Our lips a mere inches a part. I want to finish what to started earlier but right now I need to focus. I need to figure out how to save the world, how to fix this mess my family made.

I lean in a kiss her lips lightly, pulling away as quickly as I went it. She groans and looks at me. "Later I promise." She rolls her eyes and pulls away.

"I'm gonna let you get back to work, Ms. Davies, but we are sooooo finishing this later." She tells me and kisses my lips hard. When she pulls back I'm slightly out of breath. She smiles and walks out of the lab, swaying her hips in the process. I smirk at my retreating girlfriend.

–

"_Is there something you want to tell me?" Rebecca looks up from the folder she was writing in and asks. I'd been staring at her for the past hour, pretending to be spinning in my swivel chair but I haven't been able to take my eyes off her since my mom introduced us. _

"_Nope." I shake my head._

"_Then maybe you should try keeping your eyes to yourself." She says and I can see the smile playing at her lips. _

"_I wasn't looking at you, I was looking behind you." I try and fail. That was clearly a lie._

_She chuckles before saying, "Right." And then goes back to writing in the folder._

"_What are you writing?" I ask, sitting up in the chair. Swiveling it around to face her._

"_Things." Is all she says._

"_What kinda things?" I ask after a moment. She huffs, then drops the pen she was writing with a looks up at me._

"_Are you going to bother me all day?" She asks with a less than thrilled look on her face._

"_Maybe." I shrug. "I have nothing else to do. My mom is off doing God knows what, so if I'm gonna be stuck in here all day I might as well-"_

"_Be quiet." She cuts me off. _

"_But-"_

_"No." She says shaking her head, picking up her pen again. "You should definitely be quiet because I have a ton of work to do and I can't do it with you asking me a million questions." She says, not looking at me._

"_Well how about just one question then?" She drops her pen again and looks at me._

"_One." She says and crosses her arms over her chest expectantly._

"_Okay. What is someone so young doing working in this boring place?" I ask. She narrows her eyes at me before chuckling and turning back to her file._

"_This boring place is gonna be where the cure for AIDS and Cancer are discovered. And I don't work here, I'm an intern." _

"_Why?" I ask._

"_That's two questions." She says and looks at me. "And who said I was young?"_

"_How old are you?" _

"_That's three questions." She picks up the pen and starts writing again._

"_Okay, one more question." I say with a smile. The mysteriousness that's dripping from her couldn't be more sexy._

"_Fine." She turns to me and says._

"_Are you single?" I ask smirking. I don't normally have a problem getting a girl, keeping them...that's where I lack experience._

"_Sure." She nods and turns back to her folder._

"_Wait, so does that mean I can-"_

_"You said one more, Ashley. You're not playing by your own rules." She smiles at me._

"_Do I have a shot?" I ask bluntly, cause I mean come on. Who has time to beat around the bush these days._

"_How old are you?" She asks me._

"_Sixteen, but I'll be seventeen in-"_

_"No shot." She answers, cutting me off._

"_Oh come on, that's not fair. My age means absolutely nothing." I try._

"_It does when you're my bosses daughter and underage." She says without turning to me._

"_So you're old?" I ask her with a smile. She tries to stop herself from doing the same. She drops her pen and turns her head slightly to look at me. _

"_I'm twenty-one, and you most definitely do not have a shot with me, Ashley." She smiles as she gathers up her things and walks out._

"_We'll see about that." I yell after her._

–

"Ashley." A voice pulls me from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I turn and see Angel standing in the doorway. "Oh, hey Angel." I greet her with a smile as she comes in and shuts the door behind her.

"Hey." She smiles back. "I um..." She pauses and looks at Rebecca who is trying to break free of her restraints. "I talked Kyla, she told me who that is." She thumbs in Rebecca's direction.

"Oh." Is all I say.

"Don't worry." She throws her hands up, shaking them. "I'm not gonna tell Spencer or anything, I just... I wanted you to know that if you ever needed to talk or anything, I'm here. I've been told I'm a great listener." She smiles for good measure.

"Thanks." I nod and return the smile.

"So..." She starts, sitting in the chair closest to me. "Did you want some help with all this? I was kinda a science geek in high school. Granted I didn't graduate or anything but Senior year you don't really learn anything anyways." She says and we both chuckle.

"True." I nod. "I'm not really sure where I'm even gonna start." I tell her honestly.

"Right." She nods.

"I mean, I know what I need to do but there's so many variables that come into play. I don't know how I'm even going to heat the virus at the temperature I need it to be to kill it."

"Doesn't a place like this have a back up generator system or something?"

Why didn't I think of that?

"It does, in the basement." I tell her.

"Well let's go down there, get it running and get started on making this cure." She says cheerfully.

"One problem." I say, realizing something.

"What?" She asks confused.

"That's the one place we haven't cleared. There were thousands of people who worked in this building. I'm sure hundreds stayed behind. The basement is where they would have fled if something was happening." I tell her.

"You're saying-"

"Yeah." I nod. "The basement is where we need to go but there's a possibility that it's flooded with walkers. Hundreds of them."

"Great." She says sarcastically.


	9. Basement Blues

My absolute favorite chapter. I hope you all enjoy. Sorry the update took a little longer than planned. Let me know what you guys think?

* * *

"There's a real possibility that it's bad down there. We need to make sure we stay tight and we stay alert. We don't want anyone becoming dinner." Tim tells the group as we load up.

"There could be hundreds." I tell everyone. "It's imperative that we be extremely careful, I can't stress that enough. I can keep you from changing if you get bitten or scratched but not eaten." I say in a serious tone. I don't want to lose anyone on this trip. Personally, I think the smaller the crowd that goes down the better, but Tim thinks it'll be best if we all go.

"Are we ready?" Tim asks and everyone nods.

"Kyla you're not going." I tell my sister as she starts to walk with us.

"What!?" She half screams at me. "Ashley you can't be serious? We've been over this, I'm not a kid anymore!"

"No, you aren't and I get that. But you're the only family I have left and I would feel a hell of a lot more comfortable if I didn't have to worry about your safety. I can't discuss this with you, Ky. You're not going and that's final." I tell her with a shrug and head shake.

"This is bull!" Kyla yells and sits down on the floor. Everyone stares back between the pair of us. It's like this is a constant thing between Kyla and I. I know everyone is tired of hearing it but with no parents around Kyla's safety falls on me and if it comes down to her being liking me or her being mad at me but safe. We all know which I'll choose.

"We ready now?" Tim turns to me and asks softly.

"Yeah." I reply nodding. I take another look at Kyla before the rest of the group walks off. Tim, Aiden, Glen, Arthur, Carmen, Spencer, Angel and myself are the chosen ones to enter the basement.

"She's gonna realize that you're only doing this to protect her." Angel comes up next to me and says.

I turn and look at her. "You two are getting close." I raise a brow and say.

Her eyes go wide when she realizes what I'm implying. "No." She shakes her head. "I mean, Kyla is..." She stops and clears her throat. "Um... I wouldn't...she's your sister and quite frankly you frighten me so I would talk to you first before I um..." She pauses and swallows thickly. "I just wouldn't." She settles on, averting her gaze to the floor before walking away quickly.

"You scared her." Spencer chuckles beside me.

"I was just kidding with her." I turn to my girlfriend and say trying to hold back a laugh. If Angel likes Kyla, and Kyla likes Angel then that's definitely one thing I wouldn't stand in the way of. Angel seems like a nice enough girl. And maybe she'd be able to talk some sense into my crazy sister.

"Is Kyla even..." Spencer trails off and looks at me.

"I don't know." I shrug. "We've never really had that talk before." I say as we enter the stairwell and head down to the basement. The darkness creeps up on us the further we go down. The lighting from the windows dissipating with each step further down. Everyone takes out their flashlights as we reach the basement door.

"It's locked." Tim says from the front of the group.

"I got it." I say and make my way up to the door. Spencer close by my side. I take my tools from my pocket and pick the lock in no time. I stand up and back away as Tim puts his hand on the handle. Looking at each of us to determine if we're ready or not. When his eyes reach mine, I give him a firm nod which he returns and pulls the door open. My gun immediately shoots up, as well as my flashlight, pointing into the dark doorway. I'm the first to enter the hall that leads to the area of the basement where the generators are. The stench that hits my nose is indescribable.

"Something's definitely dead down here." Someone says behind me but I'm too focused to concentrate on who said it. As we walk further into the darkness, our flashlight's only illuminating the small area it's pointed in, an uneasy feeling comes over me. I can't explain it, but I knew something bad was about to happen.

"Everyone stop." I whisper as I come to a halt. Spencer bumps into the back of me and everyone else behind her does the same.

"Why have we stopped?" I deep voice, maybe Arthur or Tim asks.

"Something's not right." I say and shake my head. Pointing my flashlight in every direction.

"What is it, Ash?" Spencer whispers behind me.

"I don't know." I reply, still shining my light around. "We need to get these lights turned on now." I tell her, trying to keep my voice level. "Let's go." I say moving forward again, this time at a quicker pace. A few left's and right's later we're at the generator room. "Spencer shine the light on this handle." I say getting my tools out of my pocket to pick the lock. Like the basement door it takes me no time at all. Once everyone is inside the door closes behind us.

"How do we turn them on?" Aiden asks. I shine the light on him then shine my light to a power switch on the wall that says 'on.' "Oh." He says then smiles and goes over to flip the switch. The generators make a loud sound as they begin to power on.

"Hit the light switch on the wall over there." I shine my light to a switch on the wall. Glen starts to make his way over to it.

"I guess the basement wasn't overrun after all." Glen says as he flips the switch. Immediately, we notice two things. One we're surrounded, this room is smack dab in the middle of the basement and there are zombies at every single window. And two, it's probably been months since any of them have eaten so they look extra hungry.

"How are we gonna get outta here?" Carmen asks with wide eyes, turning back to me. The zombies are banging on the glass and it won't be long before they gain access. We need to figure something out and fast.

"Ashley!" Aiden shouts when I don't answer.

"Give me a second!" I shout back. Racking my brain for something, anything that would help us out of this situation. There's only one solution.

"We've gotta fight our way out." Spencer answers for me.

"There's too many." Arthur says looking around.

"There's no other way out." I speak up. "We have to."

"This is insane, someone's gonna die trying to fight through a herd this size." Glen says.

"We're gonna have to kill them all."

"What!?" Carmen questions.

"The only way to keep these generators running is to put gas in them, there's no way we can do that if every time we need to come down here we have to fight off a herd of zombies." I try to explain.

"These aren't gas generators, Ashley." Angel says bending down next to one. "That's a propane tank." She points to a big tank in the corner.

"How many days does that give us?" Tim asks.

"I don't know." I shrug and shake my head. Think Ashley think. "Um...they have a life expectancy of about five hundred hours maybe, but add in the size of the building and other factors maybe ten days. But we've have to go around this whole building again and make sure every single light and everything else is unplugged. Anything that can generate power has to be off." I tell him and he nods.

"We're gonna fight our way through these zombies..." Tim starts and everyone opens their mouths to protest but he cuts them off. "We're gonna just kill as many as we need to so we can get out of here, then we're gonna barricade that basement door. Nothing should be able to get out. But first we need to make it out of her alive. Everyone got that?" Tim says to the group and even though no one wants to, everyone agrees anyway.

"We need a distraction." Spencer speaks up. "Something to pull them away from in front of the door." She adds. Everyone looks around, thinking of a distraction.

"I have this." Angel says reaching into her backpack. She pulls out a flash bang.

"Where'd you get this?" I ask taking it from her.

"From my step-dad's things." She says and shrugs.

"Will that work?" Tim asks.

"Possibly." I nod. "I'm gonna have to break a window over there though." I say pointing to a window furthest away from the door.

"Do it." He nods.

"Everyone get down and cover your ears, it's gonna be loud and may disorient you for a second but the sound will pull them in this direction, we'll only have a few seconds before they figure it out so move fast and have your weapons ready to use." I tell everyone. They all drop down on the floor near the door, the zombies continue to bang on the glass as I walk over to the window and pull the pin, I shoot the window, shattering it, sending the zombies into a frenzy. I toss the flash bang grenade out the window down a hall and drop to the ground. Less than a second later it explodes, the sound shakes the ground and leaves a deafening ringing in my ears. But I know I don't have time to waste. I have to get my group to safety. Everyone counts on me for that. The plan works as the zombies all head towards the sound.

The group jumps up, quickly opening the door and making a run for it. I'm right on their heels. My back to them as I prepare myself for the hoard of zombies that will be heading my way once they realize their dinner is getting away. We're running as fast as we can but it doesn't seem to be fast enough, the zombies have gained on us and now we have no choice but to fight. I raise my weapon, firing my entire clip into the crowd of zombies – hitting at least fifteen.

"Go!" I shout to the rest of the group as some stop and shoot at the zombies. I need them to get out of here. I need to know that everyone is okay. I drop the empty clip from my gun and reload another one faster than a half a second.

"We're not leaving you." Angel shouts back to me. I feel someone come up next to me on both sides. Angel on my left, Tim on my right. We continue to fire off rounds as we back our way up to the stairwell. I'm hoping the rest of the group is already there.

"Ashley, I'm right here." Spencer says behind me. Like I needed that distraction.

"Go help your brother!" I shout to her.

"No!" She shouts back.

"Do it, Spencer!" I tell her firmly. I hear a huff then footsteps, running footsteps. We all empty our clips and reload. All of us impeccable shots, but there's too many, when we kill ten, twenty more charge us.

"There's too many." Angel says.

"I know, you two need to go." I tell them.

"Not a chance, Ashley." Tim tells me.

"You have a family Tim, think about them." I tell him as he continues to shoot zombies.

"I'm not leaving you behind." He says and I can hear the determination in his voice. Probably thinking back to his military days.

"Fine, we need to run then. I can hold them off for a moment to give you guys a head start."

"What about you?" Tim asks.

"Super speed remember." I turn to him and smile. "Now go." I say to him and Angel. They both give me a look before taking off. I continue to shoot the walkers in the front of the pack. We'll I feel like I've done enough I take off behind them. A left and then a right and another right. I'm almost to the stairs, Angel and Tim only a couple of steps in front of me when I see a white coat appear from a room ahead. "Tim look out!" I shout but it's too late, the white coat grabs Tim and they both hit the ground.

"No!" Angel shouts. When I reach them I see that the Tim is bleeding but the white coat isn't a zombie... he isn't dead at all.

"Dr. Johnson?" I question when he slides from under Tim.

"Ashley!" Angel says in a panicked tone. I turn and see the zombies are close.

"Help me with him." I tell Dr. Johnson and Angel. Dr. Johnson drops the knife he was holding and picks up Tim's feet. We carry him the few feet to the stairwell.

"What happened?" Carmen shouts as we place Tim down. Glen, Aiden and Arthur start barricading the door.

"I thought he was one of them, I didn't... I didn't know." Dr. Johnson shakes his head hysterically as he looks down at a bleeding Tim. Carmen rips Tim's shirt open to get a look at his wound as Tim struggles to breathe on the ground.

"The knife pierced his spleen. I'm gonna have to take it out if I can't repair it." Carmen says, looking up at me.

"You mean operate?" Spencer questions next to me.

"If I don't he'll bleed out." Carmen tells us.

"We need to get him upstairs." I tell the group. Glen, Aiden, and Arthur come lift him once they're done barricading the door.

"I didn't know... I didn't know." Dr. Johnson continues to say over and over. He's an old man, in his late sixties. There's no telling how long he's been stuck down in this basement.

"We're not blaming you, Dr. Johnson." I bend down and tell him. He's a small man, maybe five feet, with gray hair covering his head and chin.

"I didn't know." He says to me again with wide eyes.

"I know." I nod as they begin to carry Tim up the stairs. We get him up to the fifth floor quickly, making our way into an empty room, they sit him on the table as Carmen immediately goes to his side.

"Someone go get Jo." Carmen says and Angel takes off.

"What do you need?" I ask her as she rolls up the sleeves of her shirt.

"Spencer tell Jayden to bring my kit and all the first aid supplies we've scavenged." Spencer runs off without a word. "Tim you're gonna be fine." She turns back to him and says. He hasn't spoken a word but his eyes are saying everything. He's scared and for the first time in a long time, I'm scared too. My blood can't heal this. I can't fix this. There's nothing I can do.

"What do you need?" I ask Carmen again.

"I have scalpel's, alcohol, gauze-"

"What don't you have?" I question.

"Antibiotics, pain meds and...blood." She says and looks at me.

"Do you know what blood type he is?" I ask her and she looks like she's racking her brain to remember.

"Yeah." She nods when she remembers. "AB negative." She says and sighs. "It's the rarest blood type in the world. There's no way we can-"

"That's my blood type." I say and sit down. I know what telling her this means. It's up to me to save him. This all depends on me. " He can have mine." I tell her after a moment.

"Ashley, I have to either repair or remove his spleen, there's no telling how much blood I'll need. This surgery could take-"

"I don't care." I cut her off. "Take as much as you need." I add.

"You could die, Ashley." She says. I take a moment to think about it. What I'd be leaving behind...Kyla... Spencer.

"Do it." I tell her firmly. She stares at me for a moment.

"Okay." She says and nods.


	10. Life And Death

I really hope you guys enjoy. Let me know what you think. Next update shouldn't be too long from now.

* * *

"_Hello young lady, what are you doing here?" The short white-haired man asks me as he comes into my moms lab._

"_Um...just waiting on my mom to come back." I tell him. _

"_Oh!" He nods. "Shall I page her for you?" He questions as he grabs his phone from his pocket._

"_No." I shake my head. "I'm supposed to be up on the ninth floor." I say and he nods in understanding._

"_Hiding out?" He questions with a smile._

"_I guess you can say that." I nod and return a smile as he walks closer to me. I read his name tag. Dr. Johnson. "Do you work with my mother?" I ask him when he starts towards the door to my left._

"_More like...for your mother." He corrects me. _

"_Oh." I nod._

"_Have you seen my grand-daughter Rebecca around here anywhere?" He asks me looking around. _

"_Oh, I didn't know she was..." I trail off, not sure what I was going to say. "Yeah." I nod and say instead. "She just left with my mom a little while ago, they should be coming back soon." _

"_Thank you..." He pauses and waits for me to tell him my name._

"_Ashley." I say._

"_Thank you, Ashley." He smiles warmly at me before leaving the lab. I spin around in the swivel chair and mumble out a 'you're welcome' as the man leaves._

"_Ashley." A voice calls to me. I stop spinning to see its my dad. Great, I've been caught._

"_Can I be done for the day dad?" I ask him pouting. I'm really tired and I just want to go home._

"_We're almost done actually, Dr. Redford would just like to speak with you for a moment about the test they ran on your blood." He says and I give him a confused look._

"_What for?" I ask getting up from the chair._

"_Well it seems as though your blood is rarer than just being AB negative."_

"_What do you mean?" I ask as we walk out towards the elevators._

"_Well, I'm not entirely sure how to explain it so why don't I just let Dr. Redford tell you." He looks down at me and smiles._

"_Okay." I nod as the elevator dings and we get on to head up to the ninth floor._

–

"Dr. Johnson!... Dr. Johnson!" Carmen continues to shout at him. He just keeps repeating over and over that he didn't know. "Ashley, I need you to calm him down so he can take your blood." Carmen tells me, I give her one firm nod and walk over to Dr. Johnson who has been pacing in circles.

"Dr. Johnson, I need you to calm down. We need your help to fix our friend-"

"I didn't know!" He shouts, cutting me off. "I thought he was dead." He adds with wide eyes, looking back and forth between me and Tim.

"I know." I nod. "And we're not blaming you. We just need you to calm down and help us now. Can you do that?" I ask him in a calm voice. He settles down and nods. "Okay good. I need you to draw some blood from me, I need to go get my bag from down the hall first. Can you sit here for a moment until I get back?" He nods. "I'll be back in a sec." I turn to Carmen and say just as everyone rushes into the room.

"Oh my God, Tim no!" Jo shouts, running over to her husband. I can only imagine the things she's feeling right now.

"Jo I need you to step back." Carmen says as her and Francisco try to pull Jo away from Tim. "I'm gonna take care of him but I need you to keep calm and let me work." She tells Jo but it's no use, Jo is crying hysterically trying to hold on to Tim while her son tries to pull her back.

"Mom, dad's gonna be fine. Carmen fixed Spencer after she got shot. She's gonna fix dad too." Francisco tells his mother as everyone looks on at the two of them. "But you have to calm down, you have to let her work or dad's gonna die." He adds. His mother stops struggling in his arms and calms down, stepping back from her husband, allowing Carmen to work. Spencer tosses Carmen the bag she'd asked for and Jayden hands her a first-aid kit. I try to sneak out the door to grab my things but Spencer spots me.

"Where are you going, Ash?" She questions as I hear Carmen tell the others that she's gonna need some antibiotics and pain killers.

"I need to grab my bag." I say simply. I know that if I tell Spencer I'm giving blood she's gonna freak out. She's protective of me like that.

"Why?" She asks, stepping in front of me so I can't move past her. Out the corner of my eye I see Kyla looking at the two of us.

"I'm giving blood to help Tim." I tell her and try to side step her.

"What?" She questions, trying not to raise her voice. "Ashley I'm not stupid, I've seen Grey's Anatomy. Tim's getting surgery, you're gonna have to give a hell of a lot of blood to..." She trails off when she see's my face. "Are you kidding me?" She asks a little louder now. "You could die, Ash." She says, like I'm not aware of that fact.

"What's going on?" Kyla asks as her and Angel walk up next to us. The rest of the group is talking to Carmen trying to figure out how to get the things they need.

"Your sister is trying to give all her blood for Tim's surgery." Spencer blurts out. I give her a look and she shrugs.

"What?" Kyla turns to me and asks.

"He needs it. I have type AB negative blood Ky, it's the rarest blood in the world. No one else here has it, I'm sure. He's gonna die if Carmen doesn't repair his spleen. Plus I heal quickly, so maybe that'll be beneficial to Tim. I don't know, but I'm gonna help him. You guys can't stop me." I tell them and try to walk away again.

"So I don't even get a say in this?!" Kyla asks, shouting now. The group turns to look at us.

"Ky calm down." I try to put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugs it off.

"No! I won't calm down. You give me this whole speech about protecting me cause I'm the only family you have left and yet you're willing to risk your own life and leave me here alone." She snaps. I can see the tears building in her eyes.

"Ky it's more complicated than that..." I try but she isn't listening.

"I understand that you wanna be the hero, that you always have to be the hero, but don't do this. Don't leave me here alone." Kyla finishes and walks off, Angel gives me an apologetic look and chases after Kyla. There's definitely something going on between those two.

"She's right Ashley. I love Tim like a father, he took Glen and I in when we had no one, but I love you two and I don't want to lose either of you." Spencer steps closer to me and says.

"I'm not going anywhere, Spence." I say wrapping my arms around her. "I promise." I whisper.

"Ashley we've gotta do this now." Carmen tells me, snapping Spencer and I out of our hug.

"Yeah okay." I nod. I let go of Spencer and run to grab my bag. "The first aid area is in the basement." I tell everyone when I get back, taking the things I'll need out of my bag. "So that's out of the question as far as getting the medications you'll need. You're gonna have to leave the building." I tell them. Dr. Johnson begins prepping the stuff to take my blood as I take a seat. "There's a pharmacy on Cheyenne. It's about ten minutes east of here. If it wasn't raided after the outbreak they'll have everything you need and more in there." I tell them as Dr. Johnson sticks the needle in my arm. I look over at Spencer who drops her head before walking away.

"I'm going." Glen speaks up. I guess he feels like Spencer, Tim has been like a father to over half the group, no one wants to see him die.

"So am I." Aiden says.

"I'll go with you two, we'll need to get in and out quickly." Arthur chimes in.

"I'm gonna need everyone to leave, Jayden can you bring me a few blankets." Carmen tells her girlfriend.

"It's okay mom, dad's gonna be fine." Francisco says to his mom as he practically pulls her out of the room. Jayden comes back with the blankets Carmen asked for, they place them under Tim and Carmen turns to me.

"I don't have any anesthetics to knock him out."

"I've got some M99 in my bag." I tell her pointing to it. It's only gonna last a couple of hours though, and there's no guarantee that he won't still feel everything." I say.

"I know." She nods. "I'm gonna have to work fast, if he wakes up and I'm still inside him he could die from-"

"You can do this Carmen." I cut her off. I don't need her thinking she do this, that she isn't good enough to pull this off. "I'm sure Tim wouldn't want anyone else in this situation."

"Okay." She nods, putting on some gloves and a mask she pulled from her first aid kit.

"First bag is done." Dr. Johnson tells Carmen.

"Bring it over here. Jayden, can you grab that IV stand from the lab over there." Jayden runs over and brings it back. "Hang the blood on it." She instructs her girlfriend. "Take those tubes there, connect them to the bottom of the bag and then to that needle. Yeah." She nods when Jayden does it right. "Now find the vein on Tim's arm and stick the needle there, use that tape to hold it there." She points to a roll of tape behind Jayden on a desk. Jayden does as told then steps back.

"Is that it?" She asks her girlfriend. Carmen nods and takes a deep breath. She injects Tim with the M99 and starts the timer on her watch. She glances back at me for a moment before taking another deep breath. She turns back to Tim, picking up a scalpel out of her kit and starts working.

–

"I thought you may need this." Spencer comes into the room where a mask that Jayden had handed her upon entering. She brought me cookies and a juice box.

"Thank you." I smile up at my girlfriend. I'm on my third bag of blood, second pint and I'm definitely starting to feel faint.

"How are you holding up?" Spencer asks as I stuff a cookie into my mouth. I immediately feel a bit better.

"Okay." I say and nod lazily.

"Ashley know your limits okay." She leans in a whispers to me, but her voice sounds further away now. Actually everything sounds further away and my vision has become blurry. I faintly hear Spencer calling my name, asking me if I'm okay. I feel like my mouths moving, like I'm telling her I'll be fine, but the look in her eyes is telling me she can't hear me. They're telling me that she's panicking and I'm the source of that panic. But it's too late, the darkness has already taken over.


	11. Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Love hear your thoughts on it.

* * *

"_Exactly what are we doing here?" Rebecca asks turning and looking at me._

"_How long are you gonna pretend like you don't like me Becca?" I ask and she smiles._

"_Who says I'm acting?" She asks, raising a brow. _

"_We both know the truth." I whisper, stepping closer to her. She moves back a little, bumping into a tray with medical supplies on it. _

"_Is this really the proper place to have this conversation?" She asks._

"_I think this is the perfect place." I tell her with a smile. I can tell she's nervous, I've never seen her nervous. "Don't you think?" I ask, gesturing around us. We met in this lab, I think it's a great place to have our first kiss. _

"_Ashley, I can't." She shakes your head._

"_You can't what?" I ask, moving impossibly closer to her. Our lips inches apart._

"_You know what I'm taking about Ashley." She whispers._

"_You mean this?" I ask connecting our lips, she didn't hesitate to kiss me back. _

"_Ashley wait..." She pushes me back a bit, both of us breathing heavily. I don't say anything, I just stare in her eyes. "I can't." She shakes her head. "You're not..."_

_"My age doesn't matter Beccs." I tell her, she turns her head to look away from me but I stop her. "You like me, you can't pretend like you don't. We've been playing this game for a month now." I say, taking my bottom lip between my teeth._

"_Don't do that." She smiles._

"_I know it drives you crazy, that's why I do it." I smile along with her. _

_Suddenly her face turns serious. "If your mom finds out, I could lose my internship." She tells me, I shake my head._

"_I already told my mom, she's totally cool with it." I smile as her eyes go wide._

"_You did what?" She questions, springing upright. _

"_I knew you were feeling me, I was just waiting for you to realize it." I smile and lean in to kiss her._

"_I could hurt you right now." She says, pushing me back._

"_But you're not going to." I shrug and move back to my previous position. _

"_I hate you." She says with a smile._

"_I know." I nod, moving my lips closer to hers again. "I hate you too." I whisper before reconnecting our lips._

–

"Ashley...Ashley are you okay? Ashley please wake up." I hear a voice calling to me.

"Rebecca." I mumble and open my eyes just as Spencer's go wide.

Oops.

Not Rebecca.

She shakes whatever thought she was having out of her head and leans back down to me. "Are you okay?" She asks, her voice conveying what her mouth wont say. I think she just realized who Rebecca _really_ is.

"Just a little dizzy." I answer. "Is Tim okay?" I try to sit up and look but my head immediately starts pounding.

"You need to lay still, here drink this." She says, handing me a juice box. "He's gonna be fine. Carmen finished about ten minutes ago." Spencer says after a moment.

"How long was I out?" I ask placing the juice box on the table next to me.

"An hour or so." Spencer answers, standing up. "You need to eat something, I'll be right back." She adds, I can hear the sadness in her voice. I should have just told her from the beginning.

"Spencer." I call after her. She stops in the doorway and turns around. I force myself to sit up, although my head is begging me to lay back down. "I need to tell you something." I force out, the intense throbbing in my head making it hard for me to hear myself speak. She walks back to me and sits in a chair across from me. I look over to the table Carmen was operating on and see Tim laying there, probably still out from the M99.

"What is it?" She asks, but her facial expression is telling me she already knows.

"Rebecca isn't a family friend." I force myself to say. The throbbing moving to my ears. She doesn't say anything, electing to just listen. "She was my..." I pause searching for the words. "...my...we were together before all this happened. She was my girlfriend." I finally get out. The look on her face wasn't of anger though, she didn't seem upset at all...she looked more hurt than anything. "Spencer." I call her name when she doesn't say anything.

"I don't know why you felt like you couldn't tell me. Did you think I wouldn't want you to save her because she's your ex Ashley?" She asks and I shrug, not knowing the answer. I don't know why I didn't tell her. "I'm not angry with you, I'm just hurt that you didn't feel like you could be honest with me." She says standing up. "I'm gonna go get you some food." She adds and starts to walk away, but I don't want the conversation to end like this. I need to explain myself to her.

"Spencer wait." I call after her, standing up from my chair. Big mistake. Before I even took my first step the room began to spin, and everything in my body screamed out in pain. I was on the floor before I could even say help.

–

"_You're young enough to be my little sister you know." Rebecca tells me as we walk through the park together. On her lunch break, all this week since the kiss, we've been grabbing lunch from the little sandwich cart in the part and walking, talking and eating together. It's really nice actually, I didn't think I would find someone else after Jasmine broke my heart. _

"_Why are you so fascinated with my age, Beccs?" I stop us from walking and face her._

"_I don't know." She shrugs. "Maybe because I'm legally not allowed to like you yet." She leans in a whispers. Glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention._

"_Paranoid much?" I chuckle and start to walk off._

"_No." She says, jogging to catch up with me. "Look Ashley," She starts as we both take a seat on a park bench. "...I like you, you know that. But maybe we should just wait until you turn eighteen." _

"_Eighteen!" I shout. "Nope, not happening Rebecca." I shake my head. "I'm not giving you up so someone else can come in a swoop you up." _

"_I'm not interested in dating anyone else, Ashley." She smiles._

"_Well, I'm not about to give any one the chance. Now shut up about my age, okay." I tell her and she can't help but smile and nod. "We should get back before my mom fires you for taking an extra long lunch." I say as we stand from the bench._

"_She wouldn't..." She trails off and looks at me. "No." She shakes her head and smile. "Your mom loves me. She wouldn't fire me." _

"_She loves me too, doesn't mean she didn't beat my ass when I was a kid." I reply and smile as we toss our garbage._

"_So you still get whippings then?" She asks with a sly smile._

"_Oh fuck you Beccs." I say and smile as we head back to the office._

–

"Ashley, Ashley open your eyes. Are you okay?" I open my eyes to see Carmen standing over me.

"What...what..."

"You fainted. You may have hit your head so just lay still for a second while I examine you." She tells me, taking out a small flashlight and shinning it into my eyes. The light is blindingly bright.

"What happened?" I hear Aiden's voice somewhere behind Carmen, but I can't see him.

"Where's Spencer?" I ask Carmen who continues to shine the light in my eyes.

"I'm here." Spencer tells me. I can't see her either.

"Ashley is there any pain anywhere?" Carmen asks and I shake my head. I don't feel anything.

"She gave too much blood and she passed out." Spencer tells Aiden.

"Ash." Aiden calls to me.

"I'm fine Aiden." I assure him.

"Your pupils are normal and reactive. I don't think you have a concussion." Carmen says, finally getting that bright light out of my eyes.

"Spencer." I call again and she rushes to my side. "I'm sorry." I tell her once she reaches me.

"For what?" She asks, confusion in her tone.

"Rebecca." I say and see Carmen and Aiden start to back out of the room. They both know who she is.

"It's fine Ash, I'm just glad you're okay." Spencer tries, but I can see right through it.

"It's not fine." I shake my head. "I shouldn't have kept that from you. I should have told you the moment I saw her. I don't know why I didn't tell you. It was stupid, and I'm sorry." I finish and she nods.

"Okay." She tells me. "You okay to stand now?" She asks, holding out a hand to help me up.

"I think so." I nod as she helps me up. I fall back into the chair and try to clear my head. Everything is a little fuzzy at the moment.

"You need to eat so I'm gonna go get you lunch, stay here." Spencer tells me, kissing my cheek then leaving the room. I sigh and shake my head. I don't know why all my thoughts and dreams are revolving around Rebecca right now. Maybe I feel guilty for what I did, like what happened to her is my fault. It wasn't my fault, I keep trying to tell myself but I can't help but think it was.

"Ash you okay?" Aiden peeks his head in the room and asks.

"Yeah." I smile and nod to my friend.

"Carmen said you might have a headache for a while, so I brought you some of these." He hands me a pill bottle.

"Oxycodone" I read the label and look up at him.

"We found the best stuff Ash. We hit the jackpot with that pharmacy. I guess it wasn't looted after the outbreak."

"Thanks Aide." I smile and pop one pill into my mouth, grabbing the juice box off the table next to me to wash it down.

"So Spencer knows about Rebecca huh?" He asks with a sheepish look on his face.

"Yeah." I nod and sigh. "I should have just told her from the beginning. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You were thinking that you didn't want to hurt her feelings if you didn't have to. Ashley you try to be this tough and mysterious person but I know the real you. The you that I saved that day from the warehouse. You're sweet and kind and bad ass when you need to be." He smiles and continues. "But you care about the people in your life. You never want to hurt their feelings and that's what makes you who you are. You're awesome, don't change for anyone." He finishes with a pat on my shoulder. I can already feel the medicine kicking in. "You should get some sleep. There's some things the group needs to talk about when you and Tim wake up."

"Okay." I nod and say through a yawn.

"Sweet dreams, Ash." He smiles and kisses my forehead as I drift off into the abyss.

* * *

I know you guys are thinking that Spencer took an easy on her. Don't be so quick to jump to that conclusion :)


	12. The Calm Before The Storm

"You're awake." Kyla smiles at me as my eyes flutter open.

"Yeah." I reply groggy. "How long was I asleep?" I ask as I sit up, my head is still hurting a bit.

"You and Tim have both been asleep since yesterday." She answers, nodding over to the table where Tim is. "It's morning now." She smiles and stands up.

"Why are you smiling? And where's Spencer?" I ask. Her smile grows wider as she helps me up from the chair.

"She's knows who Becca is, doesn't she?" Kyla asks, barely able to contain herself.

"Yeah." I nod. "But how do you know that?" I question her with narrowed eyes. And why does she seem so excited about it.

"She's angry with you." Kyla says quickly with a nod.

"How do you know?" I ask.

"She kept coming in and out of here last night, mumbling things. She was waiting for you to wake up, I think. She was pacing the hallway out there, probably trying to figure out the best way to yell at you." Kyla smiles as she finishes.

"Why do you seem so happy about this?" I ask my little sister who shrugs.

"I told you to tell her. But you didn't and now Spencer is gonna curse your ass out." She chuckles and starts walking out of the room. "Should I tell her you're awake?" She turns back to me and asks with a smile.

"You're a jerk, you know that right?" I ask her and she nods.

"That's a yes then?" She asks but doesn't wait for my answer.

"You lied to Spencer?" A weak but deep voice says, startling me. I look over and see Tim is awake and staring at me; waiting for my answer. Great, yet another person to tell me how stupid I am.

"Yeah, kinda." I nod.

"Why would you do that to her? She was trying help her." Tim says. I make my way over to him slowly.

"I don't know." I shrug.

"That's not a very good answer." He says and smiles a bit.

"I didn't want to hurt her feelings." I try.

"And you didn't think finding out days later would do that to her?" He asks, staring straight into my eyes.

"I know, it was stupid. I should have just told her." I shake my head and sit in the chair next to the table he's laying on.

"I've known Spencer long enough to know that she doesn't like to show weakness. She doesn't like for others to know when she's hurting, but I'm sure something like this has gotten to her. She may not say anything, but on the inside she's hurting Ashley. You need to fix this." He tells me sitting up a bit. I could sense his fatherly undertone. He care's for Spencer like she's his own daughter. Much like Carmen and I'm sure Jayden and Jo as well.

"I'm gonna fix this." I nod and tell Tim.

"Good." He smiles slightly as the door opens behind us.

"Good, you're both awake." Carmen says as her and Jo walk into the room.

"How are you feeling honey?" Jo asks as she kisses Tim on the cheek.

"Like a was stabbed in the spleen." Tim says lightly and chuckles. I've always liked that about Tim, nothing ever really gets to him.

"We found this on the third floor when we were killing all the power." Carmen says, pushing in a wheel chair. "It'll help you get around for a couple of days while you gain your strength back." She says as she and Jo help Tim into the chair.

"I can't thank you enough, Ashley." Jo turns to me and says with a smile. "You saved my husband's life, I don't know how we could ever repay you." She grabs my hand and squeezes it.

"How about when we figure out this cure and fix everyone, you run for president Tim, and I'll call us even." I tell him and he chuckles.

"Deal." He smiles and shakes my hand. "I've already had an attempted assassination so I should be okay as President." He adds and everyone laughs.

"Oh hush honey." Jo giggles at her husband.

"Speaking of that, Dr. Johnson wants to have a conversation with you Tim. He feels terrible about what happened." She says and he nods.

"It's alright, he didn't know." Tim says and him, Carmen and I share a look then chuckle. That's all Dr. Johnson kept saying after it happened. It's amazing how lighthearted Tim is being about all this.

"Am I missing something?" Jo asks looking around at us confused.

"It's nothing honey, let's go have that talk with Dr. Johnson shall we?" He looks up at his wife as asks. She nods and starts to wheel him out.

"Wait," I stand slowly, holding my hand out to them. "...did Dr. Johnson go into the lab?" I ask and they give me a confused look.

"I don't think so." Jo shakes her head.

"The girl in there, Rebecca she's-"

"Your ex-girlfriend, we know." Jo interrupts me. I shake my head and chuckle.

"No... I mean yeah, she's that but she's also his granddaughter. He doesn't know that she's um... that she's..." I can't even say it.

"We understand, we'll try to keep him away from the lab." Tim says and Jo nods.

"Okay." I nod and start to walk out with them. "Aiden said there were some things that needed to be discussed among the group, what is it?" I ask Jo and Carmen.

"Oh!" Carmen turns back to me and says, I almost run into her. "Spencer told me to tell you to wait here." Carmen says, he voice suddenly changing to a serious tone.

"Uh oh." I say, nodding and sighing as she walks out, I'm assuming to get Spencer. A few moments later, Spencer walks in. "Hey Spence." I try to sound casual, like I'm not wary of what's about to happen. I don't scare easily, in fact I don't really scare at all. But right now, Spencer has me terrified.

"Are you feeling better?" She asks calmly, in a worried tone as she closes the door behind her.

Okay... so not what I was expecting. "Somewhat." I nod.

"But like, you're not feeling weak or faint or anything like that right?" She asks sweetly.

Aw. I absolutely love this girl.

"No." I smile and shake my head.

"Good." Her voice changes. She moves closer to me with a look of... I can't really explain it actually. But oh my God does she look scary. My smile fades as she reaches me.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She asks, slapping my arm.

"Ow." I say as my hand shoots up to my arm.

"I wasn't gonna say anything but I just can't let this go." She says forcefully, moving closer to me. "You're an idiot, Ashley." She says, her words cutting right through me as she starts pacing the floor. "You have this amazingly awesome girlfriend, and yes, I'm speaking of myself." She turns and looks at me before she starts pacing again. "I'm awesome and you go and keep shit like this from me, and for what? So you won't hurt me? Because you think I wouldn't want you to save her? What the hell Ashley? Who do I look like?" She turns and looks at me.

Am I supposed to answer that?

"Well-"

"It was rhetorical Ashley." She cuts me off, rolling her eyes. "You're an idiot and I'm an even bigger one for not realizing who she was in the first place. You're a perfect shot, you never miss your target, yet you missed her three times. Three freaking times!" She shouts, pacing again. "I can't believe I bought that story of her being a family friend. The look on your face said it all, I was just too stupid or lovestruck to pick up on it. But not anymore." She shakes her head. I'm not sure what that means.

"What-"

"Let me finish." She cuts me off again, her eyes boring holes in my face. If looks could kill...I've never seen Spencer like this. Is it wrong that I'm turned on right now? "I was stupid and I'm not gonna be stupid anymore. From now on, we're gonna do things my way. As of this moment you are no longer my girlfriend." She says and my eyes go wide.

"Wait what?" I stand and say.

"Sit down." She snaps at me. I comply quickly.

"You don't deserve me if you can so easily lie to me about something this simple. And I can't trust you. And until I can trust you, you can't be my girlfriend." She says and finally stops pacing. She pulls a chair in front of me and sits down. I'm not sure what my face is telling her right now but she doesn't look the least bit concerned about it. "You're gonna have to work to win me back. I love you Ashley, but I refuse to be played again, so if you want me. You're gonna have to show me." She says and stands up.

"Wait!" I say as she turns to walk away. "You can't be serious. I thought you weren't mad?" I ask, she turns back to me.

Her lips curl up into a small smile before she bends down in front of me, her face inches from mine and says, "Then I guess you have some things to learn about me." And then she turns and walks away, my mouth agape as I watch her leave.

"Spencer!" I call after her, but she keeps walking.

Fuck me that was hot.

"Group meeting." She peeks her head back in and says, but walks away before I can answer. But I caught the small smile playing at her lips.

I think I'm gonna like this game.


	13. Not My Idea Of Fun

I didn't get a chance to proof read so I'm sorry for any mistakes. This update took longer than expected I've had the flu this past week and feeling like crap. Anyways, hope you enjoy. And for all those that keep talking about Ashley and Spencer every single chapter about one thing or another, I'm sorry you're not pleased with the direction of the story but for you to continually bash them...that's just rude. So like my mom says, I'f you don't have anything nice to say, I don't mind you not saying anything at all or at least say something that I can attempt to approve upon. Thanks. Enjoy.

* * *

"She broke up with you, didn't she?" Kyla smiles as I come into the room everyone has gathered in. I look over to Glen and Arthur and see a boy, fourteen maybe fifteen, the point is he's new.

"Who's that?" I whisper to Kyla.

"Oh, that's Eric." She looks at the boy then back at me. She has that look in her eye. I've seen in her once before. "He's the reason this meeting was called. They found him hiding in the pharmacy. Apparently he was there since the outbreak. He was the owner's son. They were together until his dad was bitten a week ago."

"So he's alone then?" I glance at the boy then back at Kyla.

"Yeah." She nods then smiles. "You didn't answer my question. So I'm assuming she _did_ break up with you." She smiles wider. I roll my eyes and walk further into the room. "This conversation isn't over." She yells to me. I shake my head and smile at my crazy sister.

"So are we keeping him?" I walk up behind Spencer and ask. She turns and looks at me, rolling her eyes, before walking off. "Really?" I call to her, but she doesn't turn around. "You said we were broken up, you didn't say you were gonna totally ignore me." I point out to my now ex-girlfriend as I catch back up to her. "This isn't my idea of fun, Spencer." I add. She stops in her tracks and turns around to face me, causing me to almost crash into her.

"Who said this was supposed to be fun, Ashley?" She asks with a hand on her hip and her right brow raised, waiting for my answer.

"I—no..." I shake my head and trail off. I clear my throat and start again. I'm bad ass Ashley, Spencer will not break me down, I repeat, she will not break me down.

"I'm waiting." She says.

"No one said it was supposed to be fun." I shake my head and move closer to her. "I'm just saying," I whisper, my lips mere inches from hers. Her breath hitches when I move in closer. "...how can I possibly win you back if you won't play fair?" I ask, taking my bottom lip in between my teeth. A whimper escapes Spencer's lips as I move around to whisper in her ear. "This isn't a game to me, but if it were, we're in the fourth quarter and Michael Jordan..." I pull back to look in her eyes. "I can't lose." I add seductively before placing a chaste kiss on her lips and walking away. I don't dare turn around to look at her again.

Round one to Ashley.

"Okay listen up everyone." Mr. Carlin turns to the group and says. Everyone stops their chatter to listen. I guess until Tim gets back on his feet, Arthur is in charge. "This is Eric, he's fifteen and we found him in the pharmacy we raided yesterday. He has no family and nowhere else to go so we're going to take him in. We have plenty of food and water and this building is big enough for everyone." Arthur finishes, looking around at the group for approval.

"Well, welcome to the group Eric." Tim shakes his hand, the boy smiles down at Tim.

"Now that we've gotten that out-of-the-way, let's talk about the next order of business." Arthur says then turns to me.

"I didn't do it." I say quickly, raising my hands in defense. Most of the group laughs as Arthur shakes his head.

"The cure, Ashley. We wanna talk about the cure." He finishes with a chuckle.

"You guys are scientist?" Eric asks.

"No, not really." I answer for the group. "Well Dr. Johnson over there is." I point to the old man in the corner taking a nap.

"Oh." Eric nods. "Then how are you gonna create a cure? You'd need to right equipment, a test subject and some type of anti-virus to work with. Something proven to combat the X-virus."

"We have all that." I nod and smile at the boy who just got on my good side with all this knowledge.

"Really?" He asks surprised.

"Yeah." I nod. "You know a lot about this stuff, do you?" I ask and his eyes light up as he nods.

"I was in the science club at my school. I've won the science fair every year since I was two." He adds and smiles.

"Oh brother." Kyla mumbles next to me. I turn to catch her rolling her eyes. I shake my head at her and turn back to him.

"Angel and Eric, how would you two like to help me save the world?" I ask, they both nod enthusiastically.

"We'll start after breakfast, I'm starving." I say and everyone chuckles.

"Yeah, me too." Tim chimes in as his stomach grumbles right one cue.

"Well, being lazy and sleeping for a couple of days will do that to you." Jo jokes with her husband before bending down and kissing him.

"Right." Tim nods and smiles.

"How about we go fix breakfast and you three can start brainstorming on what's next?" Paula suggests, everyone agrees.

"Aiden and I are gonna go check on our friends in the basement again, you know... just to make sure they haven't gone anywhere." Glen says, no one else catches the guilty look on his face...but I do. I know that's not why they're going down there. It's probably one of many things they will do once they get down there.

"That's a good idea son." Arthur praises his son. If only he knew.

"I'm gonna go and finish turning off everything in the building, don't want to kill more power than necessary." Spencer says.

"Not alone you aren't." Paula tells her daughter.

"But mom..." Spencer starts, whining.

"It's fine, I'll go with." Kyla says from beside me. I give her a weird look. She smiles and shrugs before walking out with Spencer.

"Okay then, everyone has something to do. Breakfast should be ready in about an hour." Paula tells us as the rest of the group leaves the room.

"So Kyla told me that you and Spencer broke up. Is that true?" Angel asks.

"When did she have time to... you know what, never mind." I shake my head. "I'm Ashley and this is Angel, by the way." I turn to Eric and say.

"Eric." He smiles and holds out his hand for me to shake. A little weird but I shake it anyway. "Spencer... she's the blonde one right?" He asks with a smile.

"Yeah, that's Spencer." I nod.

"She's hot." He says but when he sees my expression, his eyes go wide. "I meant in a total 'I would never look at your girl like that' type of way." He says quickly, suddenly finding his hands very interesting.

Angel and I chuckle at the boy. "It's fine, Eric. I know she's hot." I nod and smile at him as he looks up.

"You have a way of scaring people, Ashley." Angel says like she's speaking from experience.

"Well, I'm sorry then." I smile at them. "How about we not discuss my love life, or lack thereof anymore, and talk about this cure." I suggest.

"This building has power, how?" Eric asks.

"Back up generators in the basement." I answer.

"How long do we have them for?" He asks.

"Seven or so days maybe." I reply.

"We're supposed to conjure up a cure, test it and retest it in seven days?" Eric asks in disbelief.

Angel and I share a look. "Pretty much." We both turn to him and say.

"Awesome." He nods. "And the test subject?" He questions. "Well..." I start, peeking around Eric to look at Dr. Johnson in the corner to make sure he's still asleep. "We have a walker tied up in the lab."

"A walker?" He questions.

"A zombie." I clarify. I guess not every one calls them that.

"That won't work." He shakes his head.

"What?" I ask.

"When you die, your blood coagulates and those things don't need to breathe which means no O2 in their bodies, which means-"

"The blood can't be tested." I cut him off, shaking my head and standing, realizing I should have thought of this.

"What does this mean?" Angel asks.

"We're gonna have to test a live subject." I state simply.

"You mean..."

"Yeah." I cut her off. "We're gonna have to infect someone with the live virus to draw their blood if we wanna figure out this cure."

We all share a look.

This isn't going to be as easy as I thought.


	14. Any Volunteers

"Do we tell the group about this?" Angel asks in a hushed tone. We've been trying to figure out a way... any other way to do this. Just because my blood worked on Aiden, doesn't necessarily mean it'll work on whomever we infect. What if it doesn't and then we don't figure out a cure?

I couldn't live with myself after that.

"I think we're gonna have to." I say. "I mean, we shouldn't keep things as big as this to ourselves when it directly affects the entire group."

"Right." Angel nods.

"This isn't going to be easy, I assume?" Eric questions, looking back and forth between Angel and myself.

"Not even." I shake my head. "We may have to find another way." I tell them.

"With seven days left?" Eric asks, uncertainty in his tone.

"He's right. There's no time to find another way." Angel pipes up.

"I don't want to infect one of ours with the virus. What if something goes wrong? What if my blood doesn't fix it this time?" I turn to Angel and ask. She shrugs and then smiles.

"If only my step-dad were here huh." She says and chuckles a bit.

"Angel..." I say, scrunching my eyebrows together with a smile. "You made a funny." I add and she laughs loudly.

"I am capable of that, Ashley." She shakes her head and rolls her eyes at me.

"Wait, your blood did what?" Eric looks at me and asks with wide eyes.

"No big deal." I shrug. "I was infected with the virus before it spread like wildfire. My body adjusted to it somehow. It learned to work with the virus instead of against it. It gave me all these..." I pause and gauge his reaction. He looks in genuine shock. "...abilities." I add after a moment.

"She's totally badass." Angel charms in. I shoot her a look.

"In a totally non-sexual type of way." She adds for safe measure.

I shake my head and chuckle at her.

"So you're Alice then?"

"What?" I turn back to Eric and say.

"You know... from Resident Evil." He nods with a grin on his face.

"Angel do you have any idea what he's talking about?" I turn to Angel and ask.

"Yeah." She nods. "Resident Evil, the video game turned movie." She says and then looks at Eric. "You're right, it's almost like we're living that world." She narrows her eyes at me. "This isn't a video game is it?" She asks after a moment.

"I'm not opposed to hitting you, Angel." I tell her seriously and she laughs.

"Fine." She shrugs.

"Can we get back to serious business now?" I ask the two of them, they both nod. "We're gonna have to tell the group after breakfast and then figure out where to go from there."

"Okay."

–

"We need to make an announcement." I stand up from the chair I was sitting in and address the group.

"Okay." Arthur says, speaking for everyone.

"We figured out something earlier, something that's important to making the cure."

"What is it?" Tim asks, sitting his bowl down on the table beside him. Angel and Eric stand behind me, while everyone looks on.

"Well we were gonna start running test today, trying to figure out the virus so we can know how to vaccinate against it."

"Standard." Carmen nods. "Go on." She tells me.

"Well Eric here made a great point, something that I hadn't thought of." I turn and look at Dr. Johnson. I don't want him to find out about Rebecca this way. "We were gonna um... we were gonna test the blood of..." I swallow and shut my eyes tightly. He can't find out this way. "...a walker." I settle on.

"You mean Re-"

"Yes!" I cut Aiden off quickly. He gives me a confused look but I pretend not to see it and go on. "But, we can't do that. The blood wouldn't be viable."

"Right." Carmen slaps her knee and nods her head, I guess realizing what we did an hour ago. "So what are you going to do?" She asks the three of us.

"We need to test a live subjects blood." I say and swallow the lemon in my throat. The room goes quiet, I'm sure everyone understands what I'm saying.

"You mean one of us?" Glen speaks up.

"I mean we need to infect someone with the virus and draw their blood." I clarify.

"I'll do it." Spencer speaks up suddenly.

"What!" Everyone in the room turns to her and says.

"What's the big deal? We know that Ashley's blood can keep me from turning, it's really nothing to worry about." Spencer states simply, finishing with a shrug of the shoulders.

"But what if it doesn't? What if I can't do that again, I don't want to take that chance with you Spencer." I try to explain to her. I can tell it's going in one ear and out the other.

"It's not really up to you though, is it?" She says and it catches me off guard. I know we're technically not together anymore but really? Really Spencer... we're going there?

"No." I shake my head. "I won't let you do it." I tell her firmly before turning and leaving the room.

"Ashley wait up." I hear Kyla call out behind me but I keep walking. "Ashley she only wants to help." Kyla yells. I stop walking and turn to face her.

"Not this way...not like this." I shake my head.

"Well she probably feels the same way about you, you ever stop to think about that? You're always putting yourself in harm's way; wanting to be the first into a basement full of zombies, giving enough blood to kill you, taking on everything little and big thing all by yourself... all the time. I'm sure Spencer feels helpless most of the time when it comes to you. I think that's the real reason she broke up with you." She adds, smiling a bit.

"What are you talking about now Kyla?" I question my little sister with a raised brow.

"You always have to be in control. I think she just wants a bit of that control for once. And so she's controlling when the two of you will get back together, even though I'm sure she didn't actually want to break up with you." Kyla finishes with an eye roll.

"And how would you know that?" I ask.

She rolls her eyes again and sighs. "Probably because she told me."

"What?"

"She said and I quote, "I don't really want to even break up with Ashley. I just feel like I need to, right now. Show her who's boss for once."" Kyla adds an eye roll at the end.

"And you're just now telling me this because?" I shake my head at my sister.

"I wanted you to suffer." She shrugs.

"Typical you."

She shrugs and smiles. "So just let her do this, okay? She wants to be apart of your whole 'we're gonna save the world team' so just let her."

"Fine." I sigh and lean against the wall.

"Good. Now get back in there and tell her."

"You're not the boss of me."

"Yeah okay." She smiles and shakes her head as she turns and walks back towards the room.

"Well you're not!" I yell after her. She turns and chuckles but doesn't say anything as I kick up from the wall and jog to catch up with her.


	15. Suicide

"How are we gonna keep the blood from coagulating?" Eric asks as he sits down next to me. After announcing that I Spencer could be our test subject I've decided to sit in a corner and finish my breakfast alone.

"What?" I turn to him and ask.

"When we take it from Spencer to run test on it, how will we stop the coagulation process?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose as the words fall out of my mouth, "We don't." I sigh out. "We can't." I add shaking my head. "Not without some form of anti-coagulant." I say and slap my forehead with an open palm. I don't know why I'm being so stupid. I know these things, yet Eric has been telling me stuff I should already have planned for.

"So what are we gonna do?" He asks looking around at the group then back to me.

"We're gonna need to make a run." I stand and say, answering his question as I announce it to the group.

"A run to do what? We're running out of power, Ashley?" Carmen says. "We can't keep wasting time? What do you need, I'm sure we can find it around here somewhere." She adds.

"Not unless you happen to have some Heparin lying around." Is my reply as I sit back down.

"Heparin." She mimics my actions.

"Yeah." I nod.

"What's the big deal? Can't we just go back to the pharmacy and pick some up. It wasn't that bad of a trip." Aiden speaks up.

"You can't get Heparin from a local pharmacy, Aid." I explain to him.

"Then what are we gonna do?" Glen asks as everyone looks at me, wanting an answer; needing to know an answer.

"We're gonna have to go to a hospital to get some." I sigh out.

"But the nearest hospital is LV Medical and it's..." Aiden trails off.

"It's what?" Spencer asks the question on everyone's mind. "It's what Aiden?" She asks again after a moment when Aiden doesn't answer.

"It's overrun." Kyla speaks up for him. "We were trying to get medical supplies a while back and we couldn't get anywhere near the place." She adds.

"So what does that mean? What do we do?" Glen asks in a panicked tone.

"Calm down." Aiden reaches over and rubs his back. "Breathe."

"I'm gonna have to go get it." I tell them.

"No!" Spencer, Kyla and Aiden all shout.

"It's a suicide mission, Ash." Kyla adds. "We're gonna just have to find another way to-"

"There is no other way. Without the Heparin we won't be able to do anything. We can't do any tests, we can't do squat." I speak up, my voice a little more abrasive than intended.

"Even if you could get past the hundreds of walkers on the outside, who knows how many are walking around on the inside!" Kyla stands and shouts. "How do you plan to get past those?"

"I don't know." I reply honestly. "I'll figure it out, I have to do this Ky." I tell her.

"That's the thing, Ash you don't." She shakes her head as her bottom lip trembles. "You think you do... you always have to be the hero, to save everyone; to be everyone's knight and shining armor. But you can't." She shakes her head as the tears that were threatening escape her eyes. "You can't keep putting yourself in danger and expect to always come back." She finishes, taking off out the room.

"I got her." Angel says quietly as she takes off after her.

"She's right you know." Mr. Carlin says as the rest of the group tries to look everywhere but at me because of the awkwardness that just unfolded.

"I don't have a choice." I shrug and stand up from the table I was leaning against. "I'm leaving in half an hour, I can understand if no one else wants to come. It is a suicide mission after all." I chuckle slightly, shaking my head as I play with my fingers. "I'm gonna go gear up." I thumb out the room, looking up at the group of people I've come to call family. They all have their heads down, trying not to look at me. I walk out the room to the room Spencer and I shared the first couple of nights to grab my things. I load two pistols and slip them into the holsters on my belt. I grab my bow bag and arrow, tossing them both on my shoulder, I also grab two small pocket knives and stuff them into my pockets. I check the clips of my guns once more before checking the time on my watch. A long sigh escapes my lips as I stand and turn towards the door. I'm startled at the sight.

"We're going with you." Aiden speaks up for the group.

"You guys don't have to-"

"We know." Glen nods, a small smile escapes his lips, "...then again, neither do you." He adds.

I smile a little and nod my head. "Okay, let's go." I tell them. Carmen, Glen, Arthur, Angel, Kyla, Aiden and Spencer all turn to walk towards the exit. "Spence." I call to her. She stops walking and turns back to me but doesn't say anything. "You can't go." I shake my head.

"What?" She questions with a look on her face that reads, 'are you seriously trying to tell me what to do right now?'

"Not because I'm trying to tell you what to do or anything." I say, letting her see that I can still read her mind. She smiles so I know I hit the nail right on the head.

"Then?" She asks, leaning against the wall.

"You're the test subject, you're the reason we're all going out on this incredibly stupid mission so I need you to stay here."

"But I-"

"There's no one crazy enough to volunteer to do what you're gonna do Spencer, if we lose you, we lose everything." I explain to her. She sighs and pushes off the wall.

"I know you're just using this as an excuse to make me stay." She leans close to me and whispers. "But it's a damn good excuse." She adds before walking away. I shake the thoughts out of my head and catch up with the group. We make our way down the stairs to the parking garage where the cars are.

"We'll take two vehicles just in case something happens." Arthur says. I look around at all the dead walkers on the ground.

Aiden puts a hand on my shoulder and says, "We had to take them out to get outta here last time." I turn to look at him. "What?" He questions, scanning my face. "Don't look so surprised Ashley, you're not the only one that can shoot a gun." He chuckles out and pushes me forward to get into the truck.

"Are we ready?" Arthur pulls up next to us in the other SUV and asks. I nod and pull out, leading the way.

This could very well be a suicide mission but it has to be done. Only seven days until we lose the back up generators, it's now or never...


	16. In The Midst Of Chaos Part 1

I feel like it's been forever since I've done an author's note, so I'm gonna do one and just say thanks to everyone who's sticking with this story and all the awesome reviews from those of you that still review. It means a lot to me and it helps me push out the next chapter when I have writers block so thanks.

* * *

"Don't freaking move or I swear I'll blow your brains out all over this concrete."

"What are you doing? We just saved your life remember." The dark-haired girl says.

"Yeah." I nod. "After you put it in danger." I snap.

"Well it worked didn't it?" She smiles a cocky smile, shifting her weight. Aiden's weapon quickly points in her direction.

"Easy there pretty boy, I'm unarmed remember." She smirks, holding up her hands.

"Don't talk to him like that." Glen pipes up.

"Oh!" She says, looking back between Aiden and Glen. "I get it." She points to Glen then Aiden. "You two..." She trails off, letting the statement hang in the air.

"How about you mind your own business." I snap at her.

She shrugs, "No problem." She turns back to me, smirk still planted firmly on her face as her and her partners hands stay above their heads. "But if you haven't noticed, we're kinda about to be attacked, and I'd like to not die today." She nods behind us. I turn and see a massive herd of zombies headed right this way.

–

_One Hour Earlier_

"_This is never gonna work." Aiden whispers beside me as we watch the hospital from a hilltop across the street. There are hundreds of walkers strolling around in the hospital parking lot._

"_There's gotta be an entry point." Kyla says, looking through the binoculars. _

"_We're gonna need to figure it out soon, we're losing daylight." Mr. Carlin chimes in. I look around, searching for something, anything to help us get inside this building. _

"_Got it." I say, sitting up a bit, grabbing my bow off my back. _

"_What is it?" Kyla asks from beside me._

"_Let me see those for a sec." I tell her, taking the binoculars from her. "There." I point down the hill. _

"_I don't see anything." Glen and Aiden say in unison._

"_That drainage pipe." I point. "We can go under the hospital, I'm sure it'll lead us right inside." I tell the group with a smile, handing the binoculars back to Kyla._

"_You want me, Kyla Davies, to go in the sewer?" She quirks a brow at me. _

"_That's our only way in." I say rolling my eyes._

"_Nope, not gonna happen." She shakes her head._

"_It's not that bad." Angel tells Kyla. _

"_You guys go, I'll be the look out." Kyla suggests._

"_You wanna stay out here?" I question, she nods. "By yourself?" She nods again. "With all these zombies?" I add. She turns and looks at the all the zombies and how easy it would be for them to get to her._

_"Fine." She sighs. "But I'm no where near happy about this." _

"_And you think we are?" Glen asks with a raised brow._

"_Right. Let's just get this over with." Kyla rolls her eyes and checks the clip on her gun. _

"_Don't kill anyone with that, please." I turn to her and say._

_She turns to me and smirks, "Well it is my first time." She says, then gets up and starts to crawl down the hill with everyone else._

"_She's turning into you." Angel smiles and says as she follows behind her._

"_Right." I sigh and shake my head, doing the same as everyone else. When we all got to the bottom of the hill, Aiden and Glen lifted the sewer gate and we all crawled down one by one. "Close that." I tell Aiden as he climbs down. _

"_But we plan on coming back this way don't we?" He asks, looking down at me._

"_Yeah." I nod, shinning the flashlight up at him. "And I'd like it not to be surrounded by zombies if that's okay. If they see the hole, they may get curious. They're not as dumb as we'd like to think." _

"_Oh." He says and pulls the sewer gate closed. He jumps down off the ladder, splashing water on me, Kyla and Angel._

"_Nice, ass wipe." Kyla whispers, punching him in the arm. Mr. Carlin and Carmen are adults and although we've been on our own forever, we still respect adults enough to try not to curse around them._

"_Ow." Aiden shrieks rubbing his arm. _

"_Ashley tell your sister to stop hitting my boyfriend." Glen rolls his eyes as he comes back to us and ushers Aiden past us._

"_Tell him to stop being such a douche." Kyla shrugs and walks away._

"_That's nothing like me." I whisper to Angel. She smiles and walks away._

"_Which way do we go Ashley?" Carmen asks, shinning her light back to me. _

"_Um..." I say shining my light up at the pipes. "This way." I say, leading the group through the sewers on a hope and prayer that the pipes will lead us where we need to be. "I think this is it." I tell the group shining my light above my head at another sewer gate. It should lead us into a bathroom within the hospital. _

"_I got it." Aiden volunteers to go up the ladder first. He climbs up the ladder and slowly opens the gate. Looking from left to right, he whispers down a clear, then climbs through. The rest of the group follows._

"_I'm not sure where the pharmacy is in here, so we need to stay tight so we don't get lost. Everyone ready?" I ask as I place a hand on the door to the bathroom. They nod as I pull it open. I'm the first into the hallway, bow up and ready to shoot anything that moves. But...nothing. There's nothing, no one around, the hallway is completely clear. _

"_Where is everyone?" Angel questions._

"_Maybe the hospital was evacuated before the outbreak." Glen chimes in._

"_Or maybe they're all hiding somewhere waiting to jump out and attack us." Aiden pipes up._

"_Really?" Kyla looks up at him and asks._

"_What?" He asks in a serious tone. "You don't know, they could be." He shrugs._

"_Let's just get what we came here for and go before they decide to stop hiding and start seeking, shall we?" I ask my friends who nod. We make our way down the hall, looking for signs that will tell us where the hospital pharmacy is. _

"_There." Angel points to an overhead sign. "It's this way." She points at the arrow and we all head that way. It wasn't long before we reached the pharmacy. "You two keep watch and we'll search for the Heparin." I tell Glen and Aiden. They stand guard outside the door while the rest of us go in. _

"_This is like a freaking gold mine." Carmen practically squeals as she starts dumping medical supplies into her bag from the shelves. "If we stock up enough we won't need to do another medical scavenge for a while, well... barring a catastrophic incident of course." She chuckles and continues to stuff things into her bag. _

"_Got it!" Angel says from behind a shelf, holding it up for me to see. _

"_How do you know?" Kyla questions._

"_Cause it says Heparin right here." Angel smiles, pointing to a word on the small glass bottle._

"_Great, let's grab a few and get out of here. Carmen you got everything you need?" I turn and ask her._

"_Yup." She smiles widely as she zips up her bag. _

"_We all done?" Aiden asks when I open the door._

"_Yep, let's get out of here." I tell him, taking off in the direction we came from. _

"_Well that was the easiest run ever." Glen says._

"_Way to ruin it, Glen." Kyla says and I can hear the annoyance in her voice. Everyone knows you never say things like that because the moment you do... things go..._

"_Shit." I mumble as I slide to a halt. A couple dozen walkers are standing outside the bathroom we need to go in. The bathroom that holds our only exit strategy._

"_See!" Kyla shouts softly, hitting Glen in the back of the head. "All your fault." _

"_I guess they were tired of being the ones hiding." Aiden chuckles. _

"_How do we get out of here?" Carmen asks._

"_Did you see another way out when we were outside, Ashley?" Mr. Carlin asks._

"_No." I shake my head and sigh. "This is it." I reply softly. _

"_Then what do we do?" Angel asks._

"_I don't know." I shrug, wracking my brain for an answer. We can't just walk out the front door. There's way too many to fight off._

"_Ashley..." Kyla calls me._

"_Ashley..." I think that was Aiden. They're all waiting. They're waiting for me to be the hero, the one that gets them out of this mess. This time I don't know if I can._

"_Maybe we can..." My sentence dies in my throat when the gun shots ring out. The walkers all hitting the ground. I turn to my group and see none of them have their weapons raised, we're not shooting these zombies, so who is?_

_When all the zombies are down, we take the defensive and raise our weapons, still not seeing where the bullets originated from. _

"_Ashley, what's going on?" Kyla asks from next to me. _

"_I don't know, I don't see anyone." I whisper. A few seconds pass as we aim our guns at no one in particular. We wait for the assailants to emerge, to show themselves, but they don't. We hear footsteps behind us. I turn and see a herd headed right this way, they must have heard the gunshots. This is why we use silencers. _

"_We need to move, Ash." Aiden says when he sees the herd coming. _

"_We can't go in the bathroom, they'll just follow us, we won't all have time to get down the ladder." I say._

"_So what do we do?" Glen asks in a panicky tone._

"_Run!" Is my only solution. We take off to our right, maybe if we circle back around we can lose enough of them to make it back out the way we came in. As we make it around the first couple of __corners I realize that these aren't walkers at all, they're runners. They only zombie's I've seen go this fast is the newbies, or ones that have recently devoured tons of human flesh, so maybe the hospital __wasn't cleared after all._

"_Ashley we can't outrun them." Carmen says from the back of the group. I turn just as she shoots a zombie that was right on her heels in the head. _

"_I know. We're gonna have to split up, take out as many as we can, then meet back at the bathroom." _

"_I don't think splitting up is such a great idea." Kyla pipes up._

"_We don't have-"_

"_We shouldn't." Kyla cuts me off._

"_Okay fine." We're gonna have to get some of them off our tail, on my mark we turn and fire." I tell the group. Tossing my bow back over my shoulder and taking my two pistols from the holster. "One, two, now!" I shout. The group stops running, everyone turning around quickly, firing off round after round. The first one I hit, hit the ground with a loud umph, several others that were behind it, tripping over it. We dropped at least forty zombies but it's like they're never ending. "Enough!" I shout. "Let's go, we'll circle back to the bathroom." Everyone changes clips, taking out a couple more zombies before we take off running again. We make it back around to the bathroom, the zombies that fell in front of the bathroom door have been pushed to the side. I open the door to see the sewer gate is open. We all quickly get inside and barricade the door with whatever we could find, just to buy ourselves more time. _

"_Ashley someone else has-" _

"_I see." I cut Angel off as everyone climbs down into the sewer. The door won't hold for much longer. I'm the last one down, closing the gate behind myself. We run back through the sewers the way came and see that gate is open as well. I'm the firs one out. I see two people running away. _

"_Stop!" I shout, raising my gun at them. "Stop or I'll shoot you in the back." I tell another warning to them. They both stop, putting their hands in the air as they turn to face us. The rest of my group climbs out of the sewer and we make our way over to them. "Who are you?" I question the dark-haired girl. _

"_Does it matter?" She asks with a smirk. "We were just leaving." She smiles, dropping her hands, her male friend does the same and turns to walk away. _

"_Don't freaking move or I swear I'll blow your brains out all over this concrete." _

"_What are you doing? We just saved your life remember." The dark-haired girl says._

"_Yeah." I nod. "After you put it in danger in the first place." I snap._

"_Well it worked didn't it?" She smiles a cocky smile, shifting her weight. Aiden's weapon quickly points in her direction._

"_Easy there pretty boy, I'm unarmed remember." She smirks, holding up her hands._

"_Don't talk to him like that." Glen pipes up._

"_Oh!" She says, looking back between Aiden and Glen. "I get it." She points to Glen then Aiden. "You two..." She trails off, letting the statement hang in the air. _

"_How about you mind your own business." I snap at her._

_She shrugs, "No problem." She turns back to me, smirk still planted firmly on her face as her and her partners hands stay above their heads. "But if you haven't noticed, we're kinda about to be attacked, and I'd like to not die today." She nods behind us. I turn and see a massive herd of zombies headed right this way.  
"Crap, we gotta move guys." I tell my group, they all turn and see what I mean. _

"_What do we do with them?" Glen ask nodding towards our two captives. _

"_Take the zip ties from my bag and tie them up, we're gonna have to take them with us." I instruct him._

"_We can't take them back to camp with us." Aiden protests._

"_We can't leave them here, they won't make it." Mr. Carlin speaks up. Glen takes the zip ties from my bag and tie them both up._

"_So what do you suggest we do?" I turn to Aiden and ask._

"_I don't know, but taking them back to camp should not be an option."_

"_Um guys..." Angel says tentatively as the herd gets closer._

"_We don't have a choice." I shrug. "Let's move guys." I yell and the group runs towards our vehicles._

–

Present

"What are you guys gonna do with us?" The dark-haired girl asks as we make our way into the building.

"Just shut up and keep walking." I nudge her forward up the stairs with my gun.

"I don't see why you guys are so angry, it's not like we tried to kill you or anything."

"You almost got us killed, you killed those zombies in front of that door, knowing it would attract others so you could steal our escape plan. How do you even know about it?" I question her as we continue to ascend the stairs, the rest of the group behind us.

"We saw you guys come out of the bathroom. We'd been staying in that hospital for weeks, no food or supplies, none of the consuming variety anyways, we never knew about that sewer gate, not until we saw all of you come out of the bathroom. We went in and saw the sewer gate and were gonna use it to get out but we left to go gather up our supplies and when we came back it was surrounded by walkers. We don't even know where they came from."

"So why wait until we were back to shoot them, why not kill them before we got there?" I ask as we exit the stairwell on our floor.

She stops and faces me with a smirk. "We needed a diversion for the dozens we knew would be coming once they heard the gunshots."

I narrow my eyes at her and push her forward to start walking again.

"Who are they?" Spencer asks as the rest of the group comes down the hall to meet us.

"We found them at the hospital, they almost got us killed." Glen speaks up.

"The words I believe you're looking for are we saved your lives." The dark-haired girl corrects him.

"I don't see it that way." Glen says, stepping right into her face.

"Why are they cuffed?" Mrs. Carlin asks.

"We don't trust them, we don't know what to do with them yet." I answer.

"Ashley we're not savages, we don't lock people up." Jo says.

"I know." I nod. "This is just until we figure out what to do with them." I assure them. "Put them in there until I figure something out." I tell Glen and Aiden, handing the girl over the them. They escort the pair of them into an office to our left.

"Did you get what we needed?" Eric asks coming up to me.

"Right here." I smile, handing him my backpack.

"We should get started then." He smiles and walks away with my backpack towards the lab.

"I'm gonna go help Eric." Angel says and walks off. The rest of the group slowly making their way back to wherever they came from.

"Dr. Johnson almost walked into the lab earlier." Tim says and I walk... he rolls... down the hall towards the lab. "You really should tell him before he finds out some other way Ashley." He says and I nod.

"I will." I assure him.

"Good." He nods and wheels off in his chair back to the room he shares with his wife and son. Spencer kicks up from the wall she'd been leaning against and walks over to me. Everyone else has dispersed.

"You came back." She says simply.

"Yeah." I nod and half-smile. "I told you I would." I add.

"Don't do that again." She shakes her head and turns to walk away.

"Do what exactly?" I grab her wrist and spin her back around to face me, moving closer to her in the process.

"Leave." She states simply, barely even batting an eyelash. I swear this girl has skills when it comes to keeping a straight face.

"And why exactly do you care again?" I ask smirking. "You broke up with me, remember."

"Doesn't mean I want you dead." She narrows her eyes at me and turns to walk away again.

"Spencer wait." I say, grabbing her and spinning her again.

"What now As-" Her sentence dies in her throat when our lips connect. God, how I've missed these lips. I feel like we haven't kissed in forever and as much as I don't want to, I pull back. Her eyes are still closed and I can see a small smile playing at her lips. When she finally opens her eyes to look at me, the smile dissipates.

"I promise to never leave you again." I lean in and whisper to her. She stumbles back a little, almost like my words are too much for her. I know I just caught her off guard, she's probably mad at me right now but I don't care. I had to kiss her. It's been too long...way too long.

"I...I...you should um...um..I..." She trails off, shaking her head before turning on her heels and walking away quickly. She tries her hardest not to turn back to look at me. A smile creeps on my lips.

Round two: Ashley.


	17. We Find Truth Part 2

This is the second part of the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know your thoughts.

* * *

"I'm not comfortable with you doing this, just so you know." I whisper to Spencer as I strap her down to the chair. She sighs and looks up at the ceiling. I know she's not entirely comfortable doing this either.

"So you've said." She replies blankly, not even bothering to look at me.

"Spencer you don't have to do-"

"I know that." She snaps, still looking at the ceiling. "Can we just-"

"How long are we gonna do this?" I question her, cutting her off as I tighten the strap on her right wrist.

"Do what?" She asks, finally tilting her head to look at me.

She stares at me and all I wanna do right now is kiss her. And I know she wouldn't be able to pull away because she's strapped to this chair. But I think better of it. Taking my bottom lip in between my teeth I reply, "This thing we're doing." She smiles and shakes her head.

"That's not gonna work this time, Ashley."

"I have no idea what you're taking about." I feign ignorance.

"Mhm." Is her reply as the door opens behind us.

"I don't see why we just don't use one of those strangers." Angel says as she comes in with Eric right on her heels.

"I'm doing this, Angel." Spencer says quickly.

"Holy crap, that's a zombie!" He half shouts, jumping back and putting a hand over his chest when he sees Rebecca to his right. I guess he still hasn't gotten used to them yet. Me...I've come in contact with so many that they rarely even phase me now.

"Yeah, Eric. That's a zombie, her names Rebecca." I tell him trying to hold in my laughter. I see Angel doing the same.

"Yep. Her names Rebecca and she's Ashley's ex-girlfriend." Spencer chimes in, turning away from me as I look back at her.

"Oh." Eric says and cringes as he figures it out in his head. "So that's why you're-" He pauses as I narrow my eyes at him. He clears his throat and shakes his head before saying, "Moving on," and walks a little closer to Rebecca timidly. "Let's do this."

"Make sure those straps are on Rebecca tightly before you undo the one around her waist." I tell Angel and Eric, who both nod. "We don't want this to get out of hand. I'm not risking Spencer's life." I add and they nod again, getting my point.

"Spencer." Mr. and Mrs. Carlin look on from the door.

"Mom and dad, I promise, I'll be fine." She tells them. Mr. Carlin has his arm around Mrs. Carlin with an unsure look. "I promise." Spencer says again. They both give a small nod before walking away into the room, placing a small kiss on their daughters forehead then walking back out.

"Spencer are you sure you wanna do this?" Glen comes in and asks her seconds later. I can see the worried look on his face. It's the same one everyone had when I announced that I was gonna let Spencer go through with this. Not that my opinion really mattered anyways. I'm sure that if I would have stood my ground and said no then Spencer would have gone behind my back and done something stupid like letting Rebecca bite her so that we'd have no choice but to use her. Which is what we're about to do right now but at least it's in a controlled environment.

"How many times do I have to say yes, Glen?" Spencer asks her brother who sighs and shakes his head.

"I just don't want anything to-"

"Ashley won't let that happen." She cuts her brother off and looks at me. "Right?"

"Right." I nod.

"Ashley, if you let anything happen to my sister I swear I'll-"

"Yeah. I got it Glen." I cut him off and roll my eyes. Why do people always feel the need to threaten others in situations like these? Like it'll change anything.

"Glen you can go now." Spencer tells her brother as everyone in the room stares at him.

"Fine, I just need to know one thing," He pauses, walking over to me. "I need you to tell me that you can protect her. That if it comes down to it, you'll do anything to protect my sister." He whispers to me and I'm taken aback. Can I? If it comes down to it, can I kill Rebecca?

"Yes." I say firmly after a moment.

"Good." He nods once and backs up towards the door.

"Satisfied?" Spencer questions her brother. He nods and throws his hands up . "I'm going." He says and walks away.

"Are you ready for this?" I turn back to Spencer. She nods before closing her eyes and laying her head back on the chair. I glance at the table next to us with all the supplies I'll need to draw her blood then quickly give her mine to change her back. "Bring her over." I tell Angel and Eric.

They lift Rebecca from the chair as she snaps at them. Eric tries his best to keep his composure but I can see how truly terrified he is.

"It's-" Barely leaves Eric's lips before the unthinkable happens he looses his grip on her arm strap, probably from sweaty hands and Rebecca gets loose. She over powers them both, knocking them to the floor and I know I only have a second, one solitary second to decide what happens. Rebecca lunges at Spencer and I close my eyes tightly, taking the knife from my pocket. A puff of air leaves my mouth as I lift the knife to jab it in Rebecca's head.

"Ashley no!" Spencer shouts, bringing me back to reality. I blink once as Spencer screams out in pain from the bite Rebecca has just inflicted on her arm. I pull Rebecca off of her, throwing her to the floor. She slowly gets back to her feet, growling as she makes her way back over to us.

"Argh, ungh, ah." She grunts. I pull my gun off my clip and shoot her in both legs...again.

"Strap her back up before I kill her." I tell Angel and Eric as they look on in fear. "Now!" I shout. They finally snap out of it and grab her, strapping her back to the chair as she struggles to break loose again. "Spencer..." I race back to her side. "Are you okay?" I ask. She laughs and nods.

"I guess we were taking too long to get this show on the road for her liking." Spencer jokes as tears roll down her cheeks.

"It hurts I know." I nod, grabbing the needle off the tray to take her blood. When Eric and Angel finish strapping Rebecca back to chair.

"I'm so sorry, Spencer she just slipped." Eric apologizes but Spencer shakes her head.

"It's fine." She assures him as I draw her blood. When I'm done I quickly lift my sleeve, grabbing the needle off the tray to draw my own blood. When I finish I clean Spencer's wound and stick the needle with my blood in her arm, injecting it all.

"This is gonna work right?" Eric asks, looking back between me and Spencer.

"I-"

"Yes!" Spencer cuts me off. She's clammy and feverish, something Aiden never became, at least not this quickly.

"Spencer you're-" I try but she cuts me off again.

"Gonna be fine." She tells me as her eyes flutter shut.

"Spencer." I shake her. "Spencer." I try again but she doesn't reply. She doesn't move.

"Did this happen with Aiden?" Angel questions me with wide eyes.

"No." I shake my head. Angel, Eric and I share a look before turning back to Spencer.

If this doesn't work, I don't know what I'm gonna do...


	18. Cruel And Unusual

Here's another chapter for you guys. I want to finish this story within the next couple of weeks so I could be posting as many as twice chapters a day or at least one a day. Really all depends on the feedback I get from you guys. I have six more pre-written chapters already. :) Hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

"Glen stop pacing." Aiden tells his beau as he walks back in forth in front of his sisters still body. It's been almost three hours and Spencer still hasn't woken up yet. We've decided not to tell the adults yet, we don't want to freak anyone out; especially not Spencer's parents. Only Glen, Aiden, Spencer and myself know exactly how long it took for Aiden to be okay after he was bitten and I gave him my blood. Spencer is over an hour past that time and I gave her my blood quicker than I gave it to Aiden.

"She looks better than before." Angel walks closer to her and says.

She does... but that means absolutely nothing if she doesn't wake up.

"Ashley I'm gonna kill you." Glen turns to me and says once he stops pacing.

"Glen I did all I could..."

"You promised me that she would be okay. You promised and now she's not." His voice cracks. He clears his throat and says in a deep tone, "So now I have to kill you." He adds in a big brotherly tone.

"It's not her fault, Glen. She's done all she can do." Aiden tells him.

"Yeah I know." Glen sighs and sits down next to his boyfriend. "I just... I hate not being able to help her." He whispers and leans his head on Aiden's shoulder.

I take another look at Spencer...laying there, so helpless; before I turn and walk away to the corner of the room. I can't look at her like this. I told her not to do this. That I didn't know if it would work a second time; but she just had to go and be stubborn and do it anyway.

"This isn't your fault." Angel comes up beside me and says as I lean over the counter.

I drop my head and sigh, "Not everyone is going to see it that way." Is my reply.

"There's no other way to see it. You did all you can Ashley. You were willing to kill your ex-girlfriend to protect her." She says and I turn to face her. "Yeah, I noticed." She nods and smiles. "There's no doubt that you love that girl, and everyone knows you'd do anything to protect her."

"I do love her." I reply simply.

"I know." She nods.

"I wish I hadn't allowed her to do this. I probably could have pushed harder to get her to change her mind. Maybe if-"

"You know there was no way you were stopping her Ash, don't kid yourself. We both know how stubborn Spencer can be." She chuckles and adds, "I've only known her for a few weeks and I've already figured that out. Spencer has her ways."

"Yeah." I smile. "She does doesn't she." I think that's one of the main reasons I fell for her. I never planned on meeting someone, I only wanted to do what was best for Kyla and for myself. I never imagined meeting a group of people that I would give my life for. A girl that I would do absolutely anything for. I dropped my guard with Spencer, let her in. I didn't think it would happen after Rebecca, but it did and now there's this girl that I can't imagine living without; in this world or any world for that matter.

But the sad thing is...I brought us to this point. Maybe if I had told her about Rebecca sooner, things would be different. Maybe she wouldn't have volunteered to do this. I feel like this is all my fault and I just may lose her because of it.

"She's gonna be okay Ashley." Angel reads my thoughts.

"If she doesn't-"

"She will." Angel cuts me off with a small reassuring smile.

"Thanks Angel." I nod appreciatively.

"Sure." She clears her throat and backs up from me a little. "Um...I know this may not be the most opportune time to say this... or I guess ask you this but um... I kinda wanna do it while I have the nerve." She says, stumbling over her words. She glances over her shoulder at Kyla whose talking to Eric.

"You don't have to-" I lift my hands and shake my head, knowing where this is going but she cuts me off.

"I need too." She nods. "You're like the closest thing she has to a parent so um..." She clears her throat again, adjusting her shirt at the collar. "If you haven't noticed already, I um... I really like Ky and I um... well I was wondering if it would be okay if I... you know... asked her out..." She trails off, waiting for my reaction. I guess she assumed I wouldn't be okay with this. Total opposite actually.

"Angel I-"

"I knew it!" I hear an all too familiar voice shout. Everyone in the room turns to face Spencer. She's staring at Angel and I, very much awake and smiling extremely hard.

"Have you been awake this entire time?" Glen shoots up from his spot next to Aiden and asks. Spencer shrugs and shifts her eyes from left to right for a moment.

"Not this _whole_ time." She smiles and shrugs again. "It's amazing the things people will say around you when they think you're sleeping." She smirks and lays back in the chair.

"I don't know whether to hit you, or kiss you right now." Glen tells his sister.

"I think I'd prefer a hit, there's no telling where those lips have been." Spencer jokes as Glen pulls her into a hug.

"I'm gonna go get mom and dad." Glen says before running off.

"Good to have you back." Aiden smiles and touches Spencer's arm before walking out behind Glen.

"That was cruel you know." Kyla walks up to Spencer and says.

"Yeah," Spencer nods. "I know." She adds with a smile.

"Glad you're okay though." Kyla says before walking out with Eric. Is it me or is she spending an unusual amount of time with Eric?

"So you heard that huh?" Angel questions Spencer with a smile.

"Yeah." She says and looks at me. "Every word." In my peripheral I see Angel look at me with a smile, she whispers a 'see you later,' before walking out.

"You shouldn't have done that." I shake my head at her. "You scared Glen half to death." I add.

"Only Glen?" She questions with a raised brow.

"When did you wake up?" I ask, avoiding her question. She notices because she smiles as she gets up from the chair.

"A while ago." She admits.

"That was cruel you know." I shake my head and smile at her.

She shrugs. "Nothing unusual coming from me, right?" She smiles. "Thanks for not telling my parent's. I wouldn't have been able to keep this up as long as I did if you had." She smiles.

"I don't know what to do with you, Spencer." I smile as she moves in front of me, dangerously close. "Spencer what are you-"  
"You should kiss me now." She states simply, her lips only inches from mine.

"But you-"

"Don't." She shakes her head, moving impossibly closer. "Just kiss me." She whispers and closes her eyes. I waste no time complying, immediately melting into her lips. I've missed her so much, her taste, the softness of her skin, everything about her entices me.

"Your parent's are gonna be in here in any sec." I say pulling back, trying to catch my breath.

"Then you should kiss me faster." Is her reply, pulling me by my hair back into the kiss. I can't help the moan that escapes my lips. I guess we got lost in each other because the next thing we heard was the sound of a throat being cleared. We pulled back, looking to my left, her right; to see her parents. My cheeks turned ten shades of red, not because I was embarrassed that we were caught kissing but because somehow, during the passionate make out session my left hand magically ended up on Spencer's right boob. And right now I'm too in shock to remove it. Spencer looks at her parent's, then at me, then down at her boob. I guess she's waiting for me to remove my hand.

Yeah... I'm frozen. That hand isn't going anywhere.

I gulp the lemon in my throat as Spencer slaps my hand away. Glen and Aiden stifle their laughter as I step back from Spencer.

"I'm gonna go...um...shoot myself I think." I nod, quickly leaving the room. As I'm passing Glen and Aiden they point and laugh in my face like the twelve year old douche-bags they are.

And that there is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.


	19. New Secrets

A/N: Okay so there are a few people that are bashing Spencer in this story and saying that hate it or it's boring or so on... Don't get me wrong, I love my fans and people that review this story but people seriously, if you don't like it...don't read it. I completely understand that not everyone will enjoy something that I put out but to continuously say every single chapter what I SHOULD or SHOULDN'T do in MY STORY, it's kind of an insult to ME. Not to my story. Plain and simple, I'd just prefer if you didn't say anything at all. Not trying to be rude cause I'm not a rude person at all, just wanted to let that be known.

For those of you that are still enjoying this, I hope this chapter is good for you. :)

* * *

"How's that going over there?" I turn and ask Eric as he boils something on the burner. We've finally started working on the cure. We all have our little parts of this process, we figured we'd get way more done this way.

"Yeah, almost." He nods before turning back to what he was doing. "When'd you know." He stops, turning back to me and asking.

Huh?

"Know what?" I question him.

I swear if this is a question about my sexuality, Eric and I are gonna have serious problems.

"That you were the cure, that you held the key to fixing all this?" He asks with genuine curiosity.

"Uh...only recently actually." I reply honestly.

"Must have been a pretty hard pill to swallow." He says softly, turning back to the burner. "I don't think I would have been able to handle that." He shakes his head.

"It's not so hard to take when you have this preconceived notion that you're the reason all this is happening anyways." I shrug.

He turns to face me, "You can't think that's true." He says shaking his head. I just shrug again. "This isn't your fault, Ashley. It's the government's fault, they did this. They decided that our capabilities as humans wasn't enough, they were the ones that tested serums on all these innocent people. They are the animals and they are the ones that caused all this, not you." He shakes his head. He's right, this isn't my fault, and I know that deep down, but I can't help but feel like...wait...how does he know...

"How do you know how this all got started? What the serum was for?" I question him with narrow eyes.

"I saw it on the news." He shrugs and turns back to what he was doing.

"No." I shake my head. "The news never talked about the serum, everyone was under the impression that Trinity Flares started the outbreak."

"I must have heard it somewhere, how else would I know?" He turns back to me with a raised brow. That's a very good question, how would he know? "I'm gonna finish this." He thumbs towards the burner and turns back to it. I get up from my seat and walk out of the lab, down the hall to where Spencer is.

"Hey." She smiles.

"Hey." I return the smile, as I bend down to kiss her lips.

"Mmm." She moans into the kiss.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask, sitting down next to her.

"If this is about us getting back together, I already told you last night Ashley that I-"

"No." I shake my head and smile. "This isn't about us Spencer."

"Oh." She smiles. "Then ask away."

"When the outbreak started and the news was the only way of hearing about anything, did any of the news stations ever talk about the outbreak getting started any other way than Trinity Flares?" I question.

"Not that I know of." She shakes her head. "And Glen and I were always glued to the TV."

"That's what I thought."

"Why? What happened?" She asks and I shake my head.

"Nothing." I lie. I don't want to get her worried about something that could be nothing.

"Okay." She shrugs and purses her lips. "Can I ask you something now?" She asks as her tongue snakes across her lips. I suppress a moan.

"Mhm." I nod, not really trusting my voice right now.

"Last night, why didn't we um..." She trails off, scooting her chair closer to me. "I was there, I was in the tent with you. We talked and then you left, why?" She asks with a raised brow. I consider my next words very carefully.

"We're not together anymore Spence, remember." I say standing up. "It would be inappropriate to sleep with a girl I'm not in a relationship with, don't you think?" I ask with a smirk. She hits my arm and pulls me back down into my seat.

She leans in close to me, "Don't be an ass. I'm really horny and if you don't come with me right now to our tent, I swear Ashley Davies I will-" I cut her off by putting a finger to her lips.

"You had me at horny." I shrug and stand, holding out a hand for her to take. She smiles and takes my hand before pulling me down the hall to our tent.

I think we'll cause this round a draw.

–

"Ashley we're about to get started on the oh..." Angels words die in her throat when she sees Spencer and I inside the tent. We probably should have zipped it up huh. What if Angel had been Paula or Arthur oh my God.

"I'll be right there Angel." I tell her with a smile as she closes her eyes tightly and nods.

"Yeah okay." She continues to nod. "Take your time. No rush." She adds and shakes her head. "Eric and I can handle this if you want to-"

"No." I cut her off. "I'll be out in a sec, I just need you to leave so I can get dressed." I tell her, my voice laced with amusement.

"Oh, yeah sure, okay." She nods and turns away, her eyes still shut tightly.

"Aw poor Angel." Spencer chuckles and kisses my neck as I sit up.

"Poor Angel?" I question her. "I highly doubt that seeing the two of us in such a compromising position is a poor anything for anyone." I tell her with a smile as I pull my shirt down over my head.

"True." She nods and does the same. "I'm gonna go shower, so come find me when you're done playing Bill Nye the science guy k?" She says before kissing my lips and heading out the tent.

Oh did I forget to mention that this building has a back up water supply and because we got the generators working we have hot water? It's so amazing, you have no idea!

"You love Ashley Davies the Science Goddess." I shout to her as she leaves the room.

"Keep telling yourself that." She shouts back as she closes the door. I smile and shake my head at my girl...ex...at Spencer before getting up and heading back to the lab.

"Ashley can I talk to you for a second?" Angel asks me as soon as I walk in the door.

"Sure." I nod as we walk to the corner of the room.

"Have you noticed Kyla lately?" She asks. I'm not sure I know what she means. "I mean, with Eric." She clarifies, reading my mind.

"Um...uh..." Shit what do I say? Angel has always been cool, should I tell her about the conversation Kyla and I had last night?

–

"_How's Spencer doing?" Kyla asks as I walk into the room she's been sharing with Angel._

"_Her parents just caught us making out..." I trail off and shutter. "And they caught my hand on her boob." I add._

"_Nice." Kyla smiles._

"_Seriously, what have you done with my sister?" I question her with a raised brow. She shrugs. "Where's Angel?" _

"_I don't know." She shrugs again. "She came in, gave me this look...then she left. I don't know what's going on with her." _

_I take a seat in the chair next to hers. "You like her Ky?" I ask with narrowed eyes. My sister and I have never really had 'the talk' before. I'm not even sure if she's into girls. _

"_She's cool." Kyla replies nonchalantly. _

"_Ky, you know what I mean." I turn to my sister and say._

_She rolls her eyes, "I did...I do. Well, I thought I did. I don't know." She shrugs. Aw, young love._

"_So you're into girls then?" I ask tentatively. Like I said, we've never had this talk and I'm not really thrilled that we're having it right now._

_She turns to me with a raised brow, "We don't have to do this you know." She says._

_I smile, "I know, but you're my sister and I wanna-"_

"_Be nosy." She cuts me off with a smile. _

"_Sure." I return the smile._

"_I like Angel." She nods. I feel a but coming on. "But," See! "When I was interested, she didn't seem that interested in me. We've been sleeping in the same tent for forever now and she hasn't even attempted to kiss me." I'm liking Angel a little bit more now. "I like her, I just don't think she likes me."_

"_She does." I reply quickly. _

"_How do you kn..." Her sentence dies in her throat when she see's my facial expression. "Of course she came and talked to you about it." Kyla stands and rolls her eyes. _

"_Ky she just wanted to know if it was okay for her to ask you out. That's all." I try to explain to my sister. _

"_This is a freaking zombie apocalypse for goodness sake, we don't have time for those formalities, we have to go for what we want, when we want it. Otherwise, they could be gone in the blink of an eye." _

"_Are we speaking in general or..." I trail off, letting my question linger in the air. _

"_Eric asked me out yesterday. I don't have time to waste my life away waiting for a girl that knows how I feel about her, sit around day after day and not ask me out." _

"_How can you be so sure that she knew you liked her?" I question. _

"_Well I all but said the words. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together." Ky finishes with an eye roll. "I'm going out with Eric now so," She shrugs. "I guess it's too late anyways." _

"_I thought you thought he was a dork?" I question with a raised brow._

"_Yeah, he is, but it's one of the things I like about him now. That and the fact that he doesn't have a problem telling me how he feels." _

"_Ky don't-"_

"_Doesn't matter, Ash." She waves me off before leaving the room. _

–

"You should talk to her Angel." I settle on. I don't want to lie to her but I don't want to be the one to hurt her feelings.

"Right." She nods and looks down. I guess she got her answer anyways. "We should get back to working on the cure." She says quickly before walking away.

"Angel wait." I call her back.

"Yeah?" She asks with a confused look on her face.

"When this all started, did you hear anything on the news about what caused the outbreak, the serum my mom was working on, or what it was for?" I ask in a hushed tone, glancing over at Eric to make sure he wasn't listening.

"Uh... no." She shakes her head. "Why?"

"No reason." I wave her off. "Just wondering."

"Okay." She says and walks away.

So he lied about how he got his information, I wonder what else he's lying about...


	20. Our Past Haunts Us

I just wanted to take a moment to say that I really appreciate all the love and support you guys showed me last chapter. It means a lot, and to thank you here's another chapter. :)

* * *

"My turn." Angel says, taking a vile of blood from Eric. We collected about a pint or so of Spencer's blood so we really don't have any to waste. There's a lot of testing and retesting that needs to get done and there's no way in hell I'm putting Spencer through that again.

"We're not gonna have enough time to do this. Creating the antigen, isolating the cells, purifying it... with only six days left, there's no way." Eric speaks up.

"We'll figure it out." I tell him.

"Not without Dr. Johnson." He shakes his head.

"No." I mimic his actions. "I can't. He's not ready yet."

"Ashley he's right." Angel chimes in. "He worked here, maybe there's something he knows that we don't, maybe he can help us get this done faster."

I swallow the lemon in my throat. If I ask for Dr. Johnson's help, I'm going to have to tell him about Rebecca.

"We're trying to save the world here." Eric speaks up. "We have to put our personal feelings aside and do what's best for everyone." He adds. Suddenly, I don't like him very much. I mean he's right but...

"Fine." I sigh. "I'll get him." I add as I get up from the chair. I trudge my way down the hall to the room Dr. Johnson has been sleeping in. On a scale of one to ten... I don't think I can express how terrified I am right now. He's gonna blame me for this, I told him that they got her, that there was no way she'd turn into one of those things because I saw her, I saw her die. But I didn't. I didn't see anything really, I guess.

I knocked on the door once I reached it and received a faint come in. I twisted the knob slowly, taking as much time as I deemed necessary to gather myself.

"Oh hello, Ashley." Dr. Johnson greets me with a smile as he glances over the book he was reading.

"Hey." I smile a contrived smile. My heart is beating a mile a minute and I know I'm sweating. I can't do this, I can't do this. "I just came to see how you were doing." I say quickly and turn to leave.

"Something troubling you, my dear?" He asks before I can get out the door.

"Um..." I turn back to him and say. "I just...I need." I clear my throat and shake my head. "Nothing." I settle on and quickly leave the room before he can respond. I practically run down the hall. I can't be near him right now, or Angel and Eric. They all want something I can't give them right now.

"Whoa, where you going Speedy Gonzalez." Spencer steps in front of me, bringing me to a halt.

"I can't." I shake my head. "I just can't." I say again, feeling the tears building in my eyes.

"What is it Ashley?" She asks concerned. I probably seem like a real freak right now, a couple of hours ago we were having sex and now I'm crying. This isn't exactly my best moment.

"I...I..." I want to tell her, I don't want to keep things from her, but nothings coming out.

"Come on." She ushers me inside a room and sits me in a chair, taking the seat next to me. "Tell me what's wrong." She says sternly, wiping the tear that escaped my eye.

I shake my head. Where do I even begin? "I have to tell Dr. Johnson about Rebecca." I tell her, she nods in understanding.

"I can't though, it's more complicated than...he's gonna hate me when he finds out what I did." I say, squeezing my eyes shut tightly.

"What do you mean?" Spencer questions.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" I hear a different voice ask, one that I recognize. I open my eyes to see the two people we picked up from the hospital sitting in the corner. The boy looking down and the girl smiling.

"Really?" Spencer turns and asks the girl. She shrugs and looks around Spencer to me, waiting on an answer I guess.

"Shut up before I throw you two out to the walkers." I snap at her, standing up from the chair. She pretends to zip her lips. I roll my eyes at her as I pull Spencer out of the room.

"Can we get some water and food?" She yells at our retreating figures. Maybe later. Spencer and I walk into another room, shutting the door behind us. I look around to make sure there's no one inside.

"Ashley what did you mean in there about him hating you when he finds out, what happened?" She questions as we take a seat.

–

_Eleven Months Ago_

"_Mom, dad!" I shout down the hall as I open the door to another room. People are running around frantically trying to get out of here to safety. The building is overrun now. The dead have come back they're taking down anything that gets in their way. They're hungry for one thing and one thing only._

_Human flesh._

"_Ashley we need to go, we're almost the last to-"_

"_I know." I snap, cutting her off. "I'm sorry." I turn to her immediately and say. "My parent's Beccs. I don't know if they're here. I can't get in contact with them." _

"_But you can't find them if you're dead Ashley. This is ground zero, we shouldn't even be here anymore."_

"_It's out of control, the dead are everyone, everyone needs to evacuate the building now!" A man screams over the intercom. I can see the panic in Rebecca's eyes. She doesn't want to leave me here but she's scared for her life right now. _

"_Beccs just go. Get out of here." I tell her firmly._

"_I can't leave you, Ash. I won't." She shakes her head. _

"_It isn't safe here. It isn't right for me to put your life in danger just because I want to find my parents." I try to explain to her. _

"_My granddad." She says suddenly, like it just dawned on her._

"_He's here?" I question. She nods. _

"_He get's flustered easily, Ash. He won't know what to do in all this chaos." She tells me, concern evident in her voice. _

"_We'll find him." I assure her._

"_There's no time to search for my granddad and your parent's. We should split up." She suggests._

"_No!" I shake my head firmly. "We need to stay together. I can protect you." I tell her._

"_I want you to find your parent's, Ashley." _

"_And we will." I nod. "And we'll find your granddad okay?" She nods. "I love you." I whisper and kiss her lips. _

"_I love you more." Is her reply. _

_And then it happens. In an instant everything changes. They're pulling her back and she's screaming for my help. _

_Do I help her or do I run? _

_We were told that once you've been bitten there's nothing that can be done. You can't be saved. You'll change into one of those things. They have her; the love of my life. She's screaming for me and I can't do a damn thing to save her. I only have seconds to decide as they start to bite her all over. Do I risk it to save someone that can't be saved or do I run?_

_Three zombies are headed towards me now. I have to decide quickly. I shut my eyes tightly as the tears stream out, then I turn on my heels and run, I run as fast as I can; through the stairwell door and down the stairs. _

_I just left her._

_I left her and now those things are probably eating her._

_They had her and I didn't do a damn thing to save her._

"_Ashley." A voice startles me, almost making me miss a step and tumble down the stairs. _

"_Dr. Johnson." I turn to see him standing in the doorway to the third floor stairwell._

"_Have you seen my granddaughter?" He questions. It takes everything in me not to break down right here and now. _

"_They got her." I tell him as I start to cry again. "I couldn't...it all happened so fast. I couldn't save her. She's gone." I tell him. He drops his head and nods. Not bothering to respond. He just walks away. I watch as the door closes behind him. But I can't stay any longer. I know those things are everywhere. I have to get out of here. I ran out of the building as fast as I could to my car. Both my parent's cars were no longer in their spots. I'm praying that's a good thing. _

"_Mom, dad!" I shout as I burst through the front door." _

"_Ashley!" My dad says as he, Kyla and my mom emerge from the kitchen. He engulfs me in a hug. _

"_Dad, you're burning up!" I shout, he sits me down quickly. _

"_It's nothing." He steps back, shaking his head. _

"_Dad that's-"  
"It's nothing, Ashley!" He half shouts, cutting me off. He turns and gives my mother a look. I turn to her and I can tell she knows what's happening. What's going to happen. And if it happens to my dad then it's only a matter of time before it happens to me too._

"_I thought we were safe from this." I say as I feel the tears building in my eyes once again. _

"_Ash." Kyla says, a look of pain in her face. She's too young to be going through this. She shouldn't have to grow up in a world like this. _

"_Everything's gonna be fine." My mother pulls me into a hug._

_"Rebecca's dead." I croak out through tears. My mother only pulls me in tighter. "She died right in front of me. I couldn't do anything to help her. I just... I ran. I was so scared that I ran." I admit. Kyla walks up behind me and hugs me. _

"_It's gonna be okay, Ash." She whispers. "Everything is gonna be just fine." _

–

"Wow." Spencer breathes out when I'm done.

"Yeah." I shake my head as I stare at the floor.

"This isn't your fault Ashley. You couldn't have saved her. She was a goner either way." Spencer tries to assure me.

"But maybe if I hadn't of ran I could have given her my blood. I could have stopped her from turning."

"You didn't even know that your blood-"

"Still." I cut her off. "I should have done something. I shouldn't have just left her. I left her to die to save my ass and I can't even be changed. They could have gotten me and I'd still be alive but I left her there and now...now she's-"

"You're gonna save her. You're gonna find this cure and change her back. You couldn't have known that this would happen Ashley. You have to stop being so hard on yourself all the time. You can't control everything. The sooner you figure that out, the less stress you'll feel."

"I have to tell him." I sigh out and look up at her.

She gives me a small smile before she nods. "Yeah. I'm sure he'll understand. He's not gonna hate you, Ash." She says giving me a reassuring smile.

"Okay." I nod and stand. "If I'm gonna do this, I need to do it now while I have the nerve." I tell her.

"You can fight off a room full of zombies but you're scared to tell a sixty year old man that his granddaughter is a zombie?" She questions with a raised brow and a smirk.

"Well, zombies don't cry when I deliver the bad news that they're gonna die, they just try to eat me. I'd very much prefer that right about now." I reply, trying to chuckle but failing miserably.

"It's gonna be okay." Spencer rubs my shoulder.

"Maybe we should just go kill some zombies instead." I suggest with a hopeful smile.

"No." She shakes her head and laughs at me. "Not a chance." She turns me towards the door and starts pushing me to it.

"But but but..." I protest. She's not hearing it though.

"Na un. You're going Ashley." Once we reach the door I turn around to face her. Fighting against her trying to push me out.

"If it were your granddaughter..." I pause as she stops pushing. "...would you want to know?" I question. She looks off in thought for a moment before turning back to me.

"Yes." She nods. "I would want to know."

I close my eyes and sigh. This is happening. I turn towards the door and reach for the knob to open it. "You wanna be my girlfriend again?" I turn back to Spencer and ask. She smiles and shakes her head.

"I'm gonna hit you in the face." She chuckles.

"What?" I question. "I'm just asking a simple yes or no question." Is my witty reply.

"We're not doing this right now Ashley. I know you're just trying to get out of what you're supposed to be doing right now."

"Am not." I say, poking out my bottom lip.

"Are too. And put that thing away." She says pushing my lip in.

"I need a good luck kiss then." I demand, puckering up my lips for her to kiss.

"Fine." She says and complies. The kiss quickly becoming heated. I spin us around so that she's on the door. A moan escaping her lips when her head gently slammed into the glass. I slip my hand into us, reaching the buttons on her jeans, trying hard to hold her hands above her head with one hand and unbutton her pants with the other. We all know how multi-talented I am.

"Hey!" A bang on the glass opposite of us breaks us out of our trans. Fucking hell. "Can we please get some water?" The girl asks, staring through the glass at us.

"I'm gonna shoot her." I whisper into Spencer's neck as we both struggle to catch our breath.

"No you're not." She says and I can hear the smile in her voice. "You were just stalling anyways." She adds, gently pushing me off her. "You need to go tell him Ash. Now."

"Ugh, fine! Fun ruiner." I pout.

"You know that's not a word right?" She asks with a raised brow.

"And?" Is my reply. Clever right? I reach behind her to open the door.

"I'm gonna get them some water and food for them. Come find me when you're done, okay?"

"Yeah." I nod. She gives me another quick kiss on the lips before scurrying off down the hall.

I sigh as I turn towards the room Dr. Johnson is in. I really don't wanna do this...


	21. Truths Revealed

May be posting another chapter as soon as tomorrow or Monday.

* * *

"You can do this Ashley, you can do this!" I chant over and over to myself as my hand lingers on the doorknob to Dr. Johnson's room. I take a deep breath before twisting the nob and going in.

"Oh hello Ashley, you're back." He looks up from his book and smiles. "Is everything okay? You left out of here in such a rush earlier." He says as he places his book on the table next to him.

I calm my nerves, taking another deep breath as I walk over and take a seat in front of him. "I need to tell you something Dr. Johnson."

He narrows his eyes and nods. "Well go ahead dear."

"It's about Rebecca." I add after a moment.

I can see sadness spread in his eyes. "What about her?" He asks.

I gulp a lemon before sighing, "She's here." I finally say.

He gives me a confused look, looking around for a moment before turning back to me. "I'm not sure I understand." He says.

"Not here in this room." I clarify. "But, she is down the hall."

"What?" He asks, shooting up from his seat, I guess as fast as an old man can. "What do you mean? You told me she was dead Ashley, that when the building was taken over, those things got her. You told me they killed her and I believed you." He half shouts at me; his old fragile body shaking with every word.

"I...she was." I nod. "She is." I correct myself.

"I don't understand." He says again.

"Dr. Johnson, that day that I saw you in the stairwell and told you Rebecca was dead, that the zombies had taken her, I wasn't lying to you." I try to explain to her.

"Then if she's dead, how can she be down the hall?" He questions, starting for the door.

"Dr. Johnson, you need to wait." I walk after him, reaching him before he could leave the room.

"I need to see her, I need to talk to her." He tells me trying to move me out of the way, but with no luck.

"Dr. Johnson you need to listen!" I place my hands on both his shoulders. "I need to tell you what you're about to see." I tell him, but he's not listening to me. He breaks free and gets out of the room. As he's walking down the hall he begins to call out Rebecca's name, asking where she is; causing everyone to come out of their rooms and into the hallway.

"Ashley, what's going on?" Tim asks, glancing down the hall at Dr. Johnson then back to at me.

"I was trying to tell him about Rebecca." I explain.

"Why is he calling her name? Doesn't he know?" Spencer comes up next to me and asks.

"I guess he doesn't understand, or doesn't want to." I shrug. "He's gonna find her and I don't think he's going to be able to handle it." I turn to her and say.

"You need to stop him then." She tells me. I sigh again before taking off down the hall after Dr. Johnson.

"What the hell's going on around here, is this the looney bin?" The dark-haired girl yells through the glass of the room they're in. I seriously don't have time for her smart ass remarks right now. I watch as Dr. Johnson get's closer and closer to the lab where we're holding Rebecca. "Seriously though! Can we leave?" She shouts. Okay, enough! I practically kick open the door to the room and get right in her face.

"If you don't shut your fucking mouth, I swear I'll shut it for you." I say, my face a mere inches from hers.

"Is that a promise?" She asks with a smirk and raised brow. I grit my teeth and step back. I'm two seconds away from beating the shit out of this girl.

"You have your food and water, now just sit down and shut up like a good little girl and maybe, just maybe I'll let you live." Is my reply.

"We just want to leave." She raises her chin and says. What exactly was that supposed to do to me. I glance out the window and see that Dr. Johnson is only two rooms away from Rebecca.

"You're not going anywhere, and I don't have time for this right now." I tell the girl.

"My name is Hannah by the way." She shouts at my retreating figure. I don't believe I asked her that.

"Dr. Johnson!" I shout, catching up to him.

"Where is she Ashley? You told me she was here but I can't find her. I've looked everywhere, but I can't find her. You told me that she was here yet I can't see her. She's not here is she? Is this a trick. I'm too old for games. Where is she?"

"Dr. Johnson, slow down." I pull him to a stop, making him face me. "Rebecca is here." I nod. "But she's not alive, she's not like you and I." I shake my head. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" I ask slowly, hoping he would get it.

He pauses for a moment, his breathing a little heavy. "I do." He nods and smiles. "Where is she?" He asks after a moment, looking around.

Yeah, he clearly doesn't get it.

"Dr. Johnson," I sigh out.

"Just let me see her, take me to her please." He begs. I shake my head, knowing this is a mistake in his condition; but he is her grandfather and he deserves to know.

"Okay." I nod, placing a hand on his back. He nods as I usher him down the hall to the lab. I slowly turn the handle, hoping that this won't play out like I'm seeing it in my head. "Rebecca." He whispers once the door his fully opened. Eric and Angel stop what they're doing and step aside. I watch as Dr. Johnson slowly makes his way over to his granddaughter. His back is to me, but I don't need to see his face to know the expression on it. It's the same one I have every time I'm in the same room with her. The pain of seeing her this way is too much some times. I don't always show it, and I know that I almost killed her to protect Spencer, but I do love her still. She will always have a place in my heart. "Rebecca." He says again once he reaches her. She chomps and growls at him, startling him; almost making him fall to the floor.

"Dr. Johnson you shouldn't get so-"

"How long has she been this way?" He turns and asks me. My mouth doesn't open, I can't force the words out. "How long?!" He shouts, making Angel, Eric and myself; jump.

"Since that day I told you about her in the stairwell I guess." I answer in a low voice. His lip quivers as he turns back to her. He reaches out a hand to touch her but she chomps at it and he quickly pulls it back.

"Take these restraints off her!" He turns and shouts at Eric.

Eric shakes his head. "Sir I can't-"

"Now!"

"Dr. Johnson, if we take the restraints off her she'll only come after us." I tell him as I walk over to him. "This isn't the Rebecca you knew anymore. She's-"

"Gone." He cuts me off. Glancing at Rebecca then back to me. "That's why I want you to take the restraints off of her."

"I don't understand."

"She wouldn't want to live this way." He shakes his head. "Not as one of those things." He says and before I could react he'd already grabbed a knife from medical tray behind him. It all happened so fast. I don't miss much but I didn't even see Eric take the knife from him, or push him away from Rebecca.

"What the-"

"We're trying to cure her." Eric says to Dr. Johnson, cutting me off. I stare at him in shock. He glances at me with narrowed eyes before turning back to Dr. Johnson. "We're making a cure that could possibly save the world, change everyone back, including your granddaughter." He explains. Dr. Johnson stares at him blankly. "Do you understand what I'm saying? What we're trying to do?" He asks him.

"Dr. Johnson," I say softly as I finally snap out of shock. "...we're gonna make Rebecca better. Make her back to her old self. But we can't do that without you. We can't figure this out without your help." I explain to him.

"My help?" He turns to me and asks.

"Yeah." I nod. "You worked here, you know how to do this stuff. This was your job...is your job."

"I don't think I can-"

"You can." I nod again, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know that you love your granddaughter very much sir, and I know that your would do anything to get her back. She's the only family you have left and you can save her. You can save everyone."

"I can't." He shakes his head.

"We need your help." Eric speaks up. "We pretty much have the antigen complete but we need an expert for the rest. I was science geek but I'm no chemist. This is something that needs to be done properly and you're the only one that can."

Dr. Johnson looks around the room at everyone, almost like he's debating on whether or not to help. "Whose blood are you testing?" He questions, rolling up his sleeves as he makes his way over to the microscope.

"Spencers." I answer him.

"She was bitten?" He turns to me and asks.

"Yeah, but my blood cure her." I tell him.

"Seems as though there is much for me to catch up on." He says and turns back to the microscope. Bending down to look into the glass.

"So you're gonna help us?" Angel asks, walking towards us.

"Save the world?" He turns to her and asks, a smile planted firmly on his face. She nods. "Of course." He replies, turning back to the microscope.

We are officially back on track.


	22. No Time For That

"Why are you not in there with the others?" Spencer asks me as I walk into 'our' room.

"I needed a break." I reply as I take a seat next to her. "Where'd you get these?" I ask, reaching for her bag of skittles. She looks at my hand and slaps it away. "Owie." I say, pulling my hand back.

"Next time, you lose it." She tells me seriously.

I know she's not joking.

We all know how Spencer feels about skittles.

"You didn't answer my question."

"From the stash we got back in Garden City." She replies, popping another skittle in her mouth.

"You know, I could really use a kiss right now." I turn to her with a smile and say. She waves her bag of skittles in my face and turns in the other direction. I guess that's a no.

"I was waiting until the right moment, Kyla. I didn't want to ask you out before-" We hear from the hallway, Spencer and I both crawl over to the window to stare at the arguing 'not couple.'

"Before what? Asking my sister first? I am so sick of everything always revolving around Ashley!" Kyla shouts and turns to walk away. Spencer snickers beside me. I bump shoulders with her and she almost chokes on a skittle.

"It was the proper thing to do, you're all the family she has Ky."

"You think she came and asked me before she started dating Spencer?" Kyla questions, Angel opens her mouth to speak but Kyla cuts her off. "Rhetorical question. She didn't! And this isn't the 1800s Angel, you don't have to ask my parent's if we can go steady."

"I think that was the sixt-"

"This is so stupid! I'm going out with Eric now so it doesn't even matter." Kyla shrugs and folds her arms.

"Where exactly are they planning on going anyways?" Spencer turns to me and asks. "It is a zombie apocalypse after all. Not like they can go to the movies." I snicker.

"This isn't fair Ky and you know it." Angel replies.

"Doesn't matter, you missed your chance and now it's too late."

"You don't even know this guy, not really." Angel says, moving closer to my sister.

I can agree with that.

"So!" Kyla shrugs. "He's nice and funny and cute and he's not afraid to go after what he wants." Kyla adds matter of factly.

"That's not the truth and you know it." Angel says a bit forceful, still moving closer. I hope this doesn't get out of hand and I have to step in.

"It is!" Kyla shouts, throwing her hands in the air, letting out an exasperated sigh. "We've been sharing the same tent for days now and not once have you even tried to fucking kiss me." Kyla says, whispering the last part.

"I told you I was waiting to-"

"Ask my sister, I got it." Kyla says, rolling her eyes. "All I wanted was for you to kiss me, just fucking kiss me, is that so hard to-"

Yup...

Kyla just got shut up the best way to shut someone up.

By kissing them, in case you were wondering.

That is my cue to turn away. I'd rather not see my sister make out with her... what the hell are they exactly?

"They are so cute." Spencer says as we turn away, putting our backs up against the wall.

"Too much drama if you ask me." I shrug and say. Spencer gives me a look that causes me to smile. "We do not have that kind of drama." I tell her. She raises a brow at me. "I would never deprive you of my lips and I'd like to hope that you feel the same." This time I'm the one with a raised brow. She smiles and pops another skittle in her mouth. That did not answer my question!

"Did you get Dr. Johnson to calm down?" She questions, eating another skittle.

"Yeah." I nod. "Well sorta." She gives me a confused look. "Eric um... he kinda stopped him from killing her so that I could talk to him."

"Wow."

"Yeah, he's a regular old savior that Eric." I say with narrowed eyes.

"At least he's contributing." Spencer says, totally unaware of the implications behind my words.

"Yeah." Is my reply.

"So how long before my amazing blood saves everyone?" She turns to me and asks.

"You know that my blood will actually be the blood doing the saving right?" I question with a smile.

"Sure, Sure." She nods. "When?" She asks again.

I shrug, "With Dr. Johnson helping now... a couple of days maybe."

"That's good. I'd love to get the heck out of this building." She says, standing up and stretching.

"You wanna go for a walk?" I ask, doing the same.

"That's a good idea." She smiles, putting her skittles in her bag.

"Okay, let me just go tell them I'll be-"

"I'm gonna go with Glen and Aiden." She interrupts me. "You get back to work Einstein." She smiles and kisses my cheek before opening the door. "Don't mind me ladies." She says, stepping around Kyla and Angel who are still kissing in the middle of the damn hallway.

"You know he was a physicist right?" I shout to her retreating figure.

"That's science too right?" She turns and asks.

"Yeah." I nod "But it's not-"

"Close enough." She shrugs and walks away. I shake my head as she disappears down the hall.

"You two should get a room." I tell my sister and Angel. They don't even flinch.

Okaaaaay.

Shrug.

Back to work saving the world I guess...

–

"Ashley you're taking more breaks than working." Angel says as she follows me out the lab.

"You're one to talk." I turn to her with a smile and say.

"Oh um..." She clears her throat and looks down.

"No, no. I'm happy for you two." I assure her with a smile and nod.

"No." She shakes her head. "Kyla said that we aren't together."

"What?" I question.

"Yeah. She said I need to prove that I won't be a pussy anymore when it comes to my feelings for her."

"What does that even mean?" I ask with a raised brow.

"Your guess is as good as mine." She shrugs and smiles. "But I'm not complaining. Kyla is a fascinating creature." She says as a huge grin spreads across her face.

"You got the creature part right." I chuckle out.

She stifles a laugh. "Where are you headed anyways?"

"To see what Spencer is up to."

"Of course." She nods and smiles. "I'll come get you if anything changes." She adds."

"I'm sure Dr. Johnson and Eric can handle it. I don't think they need us anymore." I say and laugh.

"You know, I was thinking the exact same thing." Angel says, joining me in laughter. We both sigh out of our laughter and I tell her I'll see her later as I go off in search of Spencer.

"Are you following me?" Spencer asks as I run into them on the third floor.

"No." I shake my head. "Not at all." I add with a smile.

"Sure seems that way." Spencer narrows her eyes at me.

"How could I possibly be following you when it's been over two hours since I last saw you?" I question with a raised brow.

"Maybe," she whispers, stepping closer to me. "you're just that damn good."

"Hi Ashley." Glen says as he rolls his eyes.

"Bye Ashley." Aiden chimes in, pulling his boyfriend away from us. My eyes haven't left Spencer's, I witnessed that whole scene with Glen and Aiden in my peripheral vision.

"Would it be a bad thing if I _had_ been following you?" I question her, my voice barely above a whisper.

"I never said it would." She replies, matching my tone and volume.

"I'm so gonna kiss you now." I tell her moving closer.

"I'm so not gonna stop you." She mimics me again, causing both of us to smile. Right as our lips touched I hear my name being called. I turn around and see it's Eric.

I'm seriously starting to hate him.

"We need you in the lab." He tells him, as he hunches over to catch his breath.

How in the hell did he find me so quickly?

"Can't be handled by the three of you?" I question him, clearly annoyed that my Spencer time was interrupting. I'm trying to win my girl back here people!

"Nope." He shakes his head.

"Fine." I groan out, turning back to Spencer. "Finish this later?" I question.

"Maybe." She shrugs nonchalantly and walks away.

"Wh—no!" I shake my head. "No maybe." I call after her.

"I said maybe, Ashley. Don't push it." She turns back to me and says with a smile.

"Yeah don't push it, Ashley!" Aiden shouts down the hall.

"There's no time for making out anyways, you've got a world to save remember." Aiden chimes in.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me asshole."

"Kids!" Paula chides us as she appears from the stairwell. Now where in the hell did she come from?

"Sorry." We all say in unison. But really I'm the only one that got caught.

"Lunch is ready." She informs us with a smile before heading back up the stairs.

"You got caught." Aiden laughs and points at me.

"Can it!" I punch him in the arm once I reach him. We all head into the stairwell.

"Ashley stop hitting my boyfriend before I go ape sh-"

"Glen!" Mrs. Carlin says from somewhere above us.

"Sorry mom." He ducks his head and says. We all chuckle at him.

"What's the big emergency?" I turn to Eric and ask. What was so important that he couldn't wait five freaking minutes while I made out with my ex-girlfriend?

"It's Dr. Johnson," He pauses and smiles. Way to increase the drama there Eric. "He thinks he's figure it all out."


	23. We're Really Gonna Save The World

"What did Dr. Johnson figure out?" I ask Eric as we walk back to the lab.

"I'm not sure, but he got this look." He shows me the face Dr. Johnson made. I chuckle. "Then he yelled eureka! So Angel told me to come find you." He shrugs.

"There's no way he figured this out that quickly." I shake my head.

"Well it was kinda his job once upon a time. One of the most brilliant scientist of his time." He says.

"What's your deal Eric?" I place a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from walking.

"What do you mean?" He asks as I take my hand off him.

"You're like this super smart kid that knows more than he should. I don't get it." I tell him with narrowed eyes. I never said what Dr. Johnson did for a living and he figured that out. He's just all too 'in the know' to be an outsider.

"I don't know." He shrugs. "I read a lot and I watched a lot of science shows." Doesn't explain anything really. Does anyone else feel like he just avoided my question?

"Okay." I brush it off, not really wanting to get into it right now.

"What were you thinking?" He looks to me and asks as we reach the lab.

"Nothing." I shake my head He opens the door and I follow him in. "Dr. Johnson did you find something?" I ask, walking over to him.

"It's in her blood." He says with a smile then goes back to what he was doing.

Huh?

"I don't understand." I tell him.

"Well technically, it's in both your blood."

Yeah I'm still not getting it.

"Dr. Johnson can you be a little more-"

"Here, take a look." He tells me, stepping aside to let me look into the microscope. I give him a puzzled look before stepping up to the microscope.

"What am I looking at?"

"This is a sample of Rebecca's blood and this is what happens when I mix it with yours." He says, as he mixes our blood.

"Nothing's happening." I look up from the microscope at him.

"Precisely." He smiles.

"Then what is-"

"This!" He cuts me off, holding up a finger as he picks up another slide. "...is what happens when I mix Spencer's tainted blood with yours, then with Rebecca's." He says, practically jumping up and down.

I squint harder just to make sure I'm seeing this right. "It's fighting the dead cells in Rebecca's blood." I gasp.

"Right." He nods and smiles.

"What does this mean?" I ask. I feel like a little kid right now. I feel like I used to be so much smarter.

"It means that we're gonna save the world!" Angel shouts behind me. I turn to see her and Eric smiling, then turn back to Dr. Johnson.

"It means, that we're closer to the cure." Dr. Johnson adds with a nod.

"This is amazing." I shake my head at the two behind me and smile. We've been working on this for days and Dr. Johnson comes in and figures it out in a couple of hours. "I'm gonna go tell Spencer the news." I say.

"Getting out of work again?" Angel asks with a smile.

"I can rescind my blessing for you to date my sister you know." Is my reply.

"What?" Eric turns to Angel then back to me and asks. The look on his face right now is priceless. I guess Kyla didn't tell him.

"Kyla and I are um..." Angel trails off, looking to me for help.

"Nope, un uh. I'm staying out of it." I say raising my hands.

"Ashley." Angel calls my name as I start to leave the lab.

"You got this." I throw over my shoulder as I leave to find Spencer.

–

"Skipping out on your work again?" Spencer asks when I walk into the room everyone is eating lunch in.

"Here you go Ashley." Jo says, handing me a plate of food.

"Thank you." I tell her as I dig in, making my way over to Spencer.

"Dr. Johnson has it covered." I say with a mouth full.

"Ew." Spencer makes a disgusted face and turns away.

"Sorry." I mumble, swallowing my food and smiling. "He think he's got it figured out." I tell her.

"What exactly does he have figured out?"

"The cure." I reply as I shovel more food in my mouth. I was not aware how hungry I was until this moment.

"What really?" Aiden asks, poking his head around Spencer.

"You could mind your own business." Spencer jumps in before I could swallow my food to say pretty much the same thing.

"You're talking around me, pretty much the same thing as talking to me." He shrugs and continues to stare at me, waiting for an answer.

"I'm pretty sure I could still kick your a-"

"Ashley." Mrs. Carlin scolds me. Seriously Mrs. Carlin! We're back to this again. I swear she has hearing like a bat.

Glen, Spencer and Aiden all chuckle. I roll my eyes and pull Spencer away from Aiden and Glen.

"Dr. Johnson found out something interesting." I tell Spencer with a smile, placing my plate on the table then taking hers out of her hand, doing the same.

"Why'd you-"

"Because of what I'm about to tell you." I cut her off with a smile.

"What is it?"

"Well, when Dr. Johnson was running some test on the blood he figured out that my blood kills the infected cells in your blood." I tell her.

"Yeah, we knew that would happen." She nods.

"Let me finish. He found that out, but he also found out that when your blood and mine are combined, they kill the dead cells in Rebecca's blood, essentially curing the virus." I add. The look on Spencer's face tells me exactly what she's about to do.

"I told you!" She shouts, jumping in the air, flailing her arms around. See why I took her plate?

"What is it?" Aiden stands and asks. So nosy.

"Still minding others peoples business I see." I say to him, Spencer chuckles. He sits back down, rolling his eyes.

"I told you I had super blood." She shrugs and smirks.

"That you did." I nod and smile at her cuteness.

"So what happens next?" She asks, picking her food back up from the table.

"I'm not sure really. I mean, I know what the next step in the process is, we're gonna have to isolate the cells and things like that but Dr. Johnson seems to have everything taken care of so I think I'm gonna just let him work."

"That's mighty lazy of you." She says and smiles.

"Meh." I shrug and she chuckles. "I'll be right back." I tell her as I walk over to Aiden and Glen. "Hey Glen, can I ask you something about Eric?"

"Look who wants to be in someone else's business now." Aiden smirks, sitting back in his chair.

"I believe I said Glen." I playfully snap at him.

"Yeah." Glen chuckles and shakes his head at us. "What's up?"

"When you guys picked Eric up from the pharmacy, what exactly did it look like?" I question.

"The pharmacy?" He asks and I nod. "Well, it was cleared actually. No zombies in or out really. It's like the whole area had been taken out. Easiest run I even went on."

"And you said he lost his dad, right?"

"Yeah. He said that he'd lost him to a herd a few days or so earlier, I think."

"Then who killed the herd?" I ask no one in particular.

"Good question." Glen nods and knits his brows.

"Thanks, Glen." I tell him before walking back over to Spencer.

"Everything okay?" She asks when she sees my face.

"I'm gonna tell you something, but I'm not even sure of it myself so you have to promise not to tell anyone okay?" She smiles before raising a brow at me.

"Dramatic much?" She questions.

"I'm serious, Spence."

"Okay, okay." Her face and tone both turn serious. "What is it?"

I pull her into the hallway. "It's about Eric." I start.


	24. These Little Moments

"What about Eric?" She asks, concern evident in her tone.

"It could be nothing." I shrug and shake my head. "It could be me just overreacting to small details, but that's who I am, it's what I do. I'm skeptical of certain things and I'm hardly ever wrong." I explain.

"Ashley you're freaking me out, just tell me what's going on." Spencer whispers quickly.

"Eric... his story just doesn't make sense." I tell her, she gives me a confused look. "He knows things, things that he shouldn't." I whisper, moving closer to her.

"Science stuff?" She asks.

"Yes, I mean no. Other stuff too. Like stuff about Dr. Johnson and Trinity Flares, he knew who she was and that she didn't really exist. No one knew that Spence. No one on the outside anyways." I tell her.

"Wait, that's why you asked me about the news isn't it?" She questions, I nod. "Why didn't you just tell me then?"

"I don't know." I shrug. "I didn't know if I was just making a big deal out of nothing, but now..."

"Now?" She urges me on.

"Glen said he killed an entire herd of zombies...alone. You don't do that without some special kind of training or something."

"I got it." She snaps her fingers and says, "Maybe he's a ninja." A smile creeps on her lips.

"Spencer." I scold her. But I can't help the smile that spreads across my face. "I'm being serious." I push her gently.

"I know, I know." She chuckles, repositioning herself back in front of me. "So what are you gonna do about it?"

"I don't know. There's nothing I really can do besides keep an eye on him, I guess." I shrug.

"It's not like he's been trying to kill us or anything. He's been helping since he got here. A super secret agent/killer wouldn't be helpful would he?" She questions with a raised brow and a smile.

"This is all one big joke to you, isn't it?" I ask, smiling at how extra cute she's being right now.

She shrugs. "I just don't want you going around accusing innocent people of treason."

"Treason Spencer, really?" I ask with one brow raised.

"That's what that is...right?" She asks seriously. I burst into laughter and nod.

"Sure." I manage to get out between chuckles.

"Jerk." She slaps me on the arm and does a cute little pout.

"Really, you're gonna bring that out?" I question.

"Is it working?"

I shake my head and smile. "Nope." I tell her, popping the 'p'.

"Well no kiss for you then." She shrugs and turns to walk away.

"Um, no!" I half shout, grabbing her and spinning her back around to face me. "You're not getting away that easily." I pull her closer to me, connecting our lips. It's amazing how I can never get enough of her lips. She pulls back, to my disappointment.

"Go be a detective and find out more stuff about Eric before you say something to the group, okay?" She asks and I shake my head and smile at her. "What?" She questions.

"How'd you know I was gonna talk to the group?" I ask seriously.

"You had that look." She shrugs.

"You know me too well Spencer Carlin." I smile and pull her into another kiss.

She pulls back again, "Go, before I keep you."

"I wouldn't protest." I pull her back into me again.

"Of course not, you're a slacker." She smiles.

"Well, you're an amazing distraction." I retort.

"Go." She commands.

"Mmm. I love it when you tell me what to do." I moan, taking my bottom lip between my teeth.

"Ashley Davies, do not start this." She shakes her head and giggles.

Aw! She giggled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Spencer." I feign ignorance as I move in closer to her.

"Hey! What's going on you two?" Hannah shouts and bangs on the glass.

Annnnnd the moment is gone.

"I'm gonna gonna shoot her." I decide, turning to walk towards the room they're in as I take my gun off my clip.

"No you're not." Spencer says, grabbing me and pulling me down the hall in the other direction. "You need to get back to work anyways. You have a world to save remember. I promise I'll be here when you get done." She assures me.

"As Spencer Carlin my ex or current girlfriend?" I ask, knowing she probably won't give me an answer but it was worth a shot, right?

"When this is done..." She starts, moving closer to me. "...when the cure is figured out and we can leave this place to go start saving people, I'll be your current girlfriend." She smiles and kisses me sweetly.

"Seriously?" I ask, my voice an octave higher than normal. I honestly didn't expect that reply.

"Yes." She nods. "I think you've proven that you deserve me." She tells me and kisses me again.

Score!

Ashley 4, Spencer-

"Stop doing that." She cuts off my thoughts.

"Huh?" I look at her and ask.

"You're keeping score in your head, Ashley, I'm not crazy." She smiles. I give her a bewildered look. How in the hell could she possibly have known that? "I know everything that goes on in that pretty little head of yours... remember that." She says, giving me one last kiss before walking past me, back to the room we'd just exited.

Creepy...

–

"How are things going in here?" I throw out the question as I enter the lab.

"Dr. Johnson isn't playing nice." Angel whines causing Dr. Johnson to chuckle.

"This procedure requires expert hands, my dear." He turns and tells Angel.

"Aw poo." She pouts and he chuckles again. -

"Got a sec?" I ask Angel, she nods and we walk over to the corner. Far from Eric and Dr. Johnson.

"What's up?" She asks, sitting in a chair.

"Does Eric seem...different to you?" I ask, trying to word my sentence properly.

"Different?" She asks, raising a brow.

"Um... extraordinary?" I try.

"Yeah, extraordinarily annoying." She replies with a smile. "You know he asked Kyla out right? He knew that I liked her because I told him and he asked her out anyways. How could he just-"

"You're getting off track here." I stop her mid-rant.

"Oh." She shakes her head and smiles. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

"He just seems a bit off to me or something, I don't know." I shrug. "It could just be my head messing with me."

She leans in closer to me, "Oooo are your spidey senses tingling?" She asks seriously.

"And this conversation is now over." I laugh and shake my head at her.  
"Okay, but you know with all the super powers you have, I'm sure you've got that one too." She shrugs and walks back over to Dr. Johnson.

"I think we should break for the day." Dr. Johnson says. "We should have everything completed in a couple of days maybe, if all goes well." He tells the three of us with a smile.

"Good!" I reply. "Cause my relationship is dependent upon us figuring out this cure and saving the world." I add with a smile.

"Then maybe you should try contributing every once in a while." Dr. Johnson jokes and I can't help but smile. I didn't know he had it in him.

"Oh you're gonna get in on the Ashley jokes too, Dr. Johnson." Is my reply.  
He shrugs. "The opportunity presented itself."

"Spoken like a true genius." Angel chimes in.

"Thank you." I retort sarcastically, rolling my eyes at her. She chuckles as her and Eric leave the lab. I'm sure they're both starving. "Thanks for helping us with this, Dr. Johnson." I tell him as I take a seat next to him.

"Ah, no problem." He waves me off. "I quite enjoy it actually. It makes me feel like I'm at home." He smiles as he starts to clean up his work area. I get up to help him. "What are you going to do?" He turns to me suddenly and asks.

"About what?" I ask, a bit confused at his question.

"I'm rather close to figuring out this cure Ashley, and I may be an old man but I'm not blind nor ignorant." He smiles.

"I still don't follow." I scrunch my eyebrows and say.

"When Rebecca is cured." He says and then it dawns on me. "You're with Spencer now but I know that you love my granddaughter. I can see the way you still look at her. You loved her for almost a year, I knew back then. She wouldn't tell me, or anyone because you were the bosses daughter," And the fact that I was underage. "...but I wasn't blind to the feelings she had for you."

"Dr. Johnson I-"

"No need to explain dear. I understand that the choice is difficult. I only hope that you do what's in the best interest my granddaughter when the time comes." He smiles before turning and walking out the lab.

Great! I hadn't thought about this moment.

What exactly will I do when the time comes?


	25. Time Stands Still

"Why are you up so early" Spencer asks, peeking her head out of the tent. "Everything okay?" She asks as she comes and stands next to me.

"Everything is fine." I turn to her and smile. But I know she can see right through my lie.

"No it's not." She shakes her head. "Tell me what's on your mind." She leans her head on my shoulder, wrapping her arms around my right one.

I sigh, not wanting to bring this up just yet. But all not I couldn't think of anything else. Dr. Johnson's words played on a loop in my head, over and over last night. "We're almost done with the cure. A couple days maybe, at the most." I tell her. She nods and smiles.

"I know, you guys are moving really fast. But that's not what's bothering you Ashley."

"When Rebecca wakes up," I start, glancing down to see Spencer's reaction. Her facial expression doesn't change. I guess she knew this conversation was coming. "Spencer I don't want you to think that I want anyone but you, because I don't. You're it for me. I love you and when this is over, when the world goes back to how it's supposed to be, I want you at my side." I explain.

"I know." She smiles. "I know that you love me, but I also know that you love her too, Ashley. I'm not blind to that." She says and takes a deep breath. "We don't..." She pauses and shakes her head. "We don't have to talk about this right now. Let's just finish the cure and then we'll discuss it okay." She suggests, I nod even though I'd rather get it all out now. There's not a doubt in my mind that Spencer is the girl I want to spend my forever with, that isn't the issue. The issue is that everyone is right, I never got the chance to grieve the loss of Rebecca, I never got the chance to get over her. And now that's she's here, back in my life and soon enough she's gonna be the old Rebecca again, I don't know how I'm going to take it. How things will be between us. Will she remember me? Everything that we had? Will she remember that I left her to die, that I ran like a coward instead of trying to save her? Will she be the same person I remember her as?

So many questions and so many answers that I'm terrified to find out.

–

"_What's this and why are you giving it to me?" Rebecca smiles as I hold out the bouquet of roses in front of her. She glances around the lab and out the windows to make sure no one is watching._

"_There's roses and I'm giving them to you because I want to. I like to do nice things for my girlfriend." I reply with a smile._

"_I never said I would be your girlfriend Ashley." She rebuttals, matching my smile. _

"_You also never said you wouldn't." I retort._

"_You're gonna get me in trouble, okay sure, your mom is fine with this but what about her boss? And my granddad. You know he works here, right?" She asks as she leans forward to sniff the roses._

"_Yes, I know." I say rolling my eyes. "I don't care what other people think, Beccs. I just want to be with you and I know you want the same thing." I take the flowers from her and place them on the counter. Taking her hands in mine. "This..." I say moving closer to her, eliminating any space that was between us. "This is so good." I whisper. "What we have, it only comes around once in a lifetime. We're so lucky to have found each other at such a young age because when I'm with you Beccs, time stands still. No one else exists but us." _

_She closes her eyes and smiles. "Time can't stand still Ashley, then you'd be sixteen forever." She says and chuckles. "And I'd be in jail probably." She adds after a moment._

"_Here you go with the age jokes." I chuckle before kissing her lips. _

"_Well you opened the door for it." She replies. _

"_By now I would have thought that-"_

"_The flowers are lovely, Ashley." She says, cutting me off, looking behind me at the flowers on the counter._

"_I thought you would like them." I smile. _

"_You've always had impeccable taste." _

"_Toot your own horn much?" I joke, pulling her towards the door with me._

"_Where are we going?" She asks confused._

"_To the roof." I reply._

"_Um... why?" She asks with a raised brow, pulling us to a stop before we reach the door._

_I roll my eyes playfully, pulling her closer to me, "So I can shout to the world that I'm in love with Rebecca Alex Johnson." I reply sweetly._

"_Ashley..." She shakes her head and smiles._

"_Well they ought to know." I reply with a shrug._

"_Love?" She inquires._

"_Yes." I turn back around to face her. Moving as close as I possibly can to her. "I love you." I say softly._

"_Ashley." She says, pausing as I see the tears well up in her eyes. "I don't care to admit this, to myself or to you really." She pauses again. A sigh escapes her lips before she starts again. "I love you, too." She finally gets out and I can't help the smile that creeps onto my lips._

"_Come on let's go." I kiss her quickly then pull her out the door._

"_Ashley we're not doing this." She says as I lead her down the hall to the stairwell._

_We so are..._

–

"What are you doing up here?" Angel asks me as she closes the door to the roof.

"I needed some air." I reply, turning back to the city. I don't know why we never came up here before, we can see most the city from up here.

"Everything okay Ashley?" She asks as she comes and stands next to me.

"Yeah." I nod. "Just thinking." I answer honestly.

"About what you're gonna do when Rebecca wakes up now that you have Spencer?"

"How is it that everyone has given this thought but me?" I ask, turning to her.

She shrugs and smiles, "You've been dealing with a lot."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Dr. Johnson said that he's in the purification stage. He thinks he'll have it ready to add the adjuvant within a couple of hours."

"He's moving so fast on all this, I still can't believe it." I say as we turn to head back towards the roof door.

"That's the same thing I said." Angel turns to me and says in a high pitch voice. "He told me welcome to the 21st century and thank you for joining us." She adds after a moment, dropping her head. Angel and I burst into laughter as we head back down the stairwell. Dr. Johnson has been full of jokes these past couple of days.

As we were descending the stairs we heard a noise, like a crackling, or static on the tenth floor. We glanced at each other, making sure we both heard it.

"Yeah." I whisper softly, nodding. Answering the question she hadn't asked.

"Should we-"

"Yeah." I whisper again, cutting her off. I pull her behind me as I reach to open the door slowly. I take my gun off my clip just in case, even though I'm not sure how anyone could have gotten into the building and up to the tenth floor without our knowledge. I put a finger up to my mouth and signal for Angel to stay low as we make our way up to the first door. I peek into it quickly, not seeing anyone, I move down to the next one. I move to the other side as Angel squats on the other side. The noise is extremely loud so we know this is where it's coming from. As we go to stand we hear a voice, a familiar voice.

"Miller to base, Miller to base."

"Eric!" I burst into the room and say. He looks like a deer caught in headlights as he cradles a radio in his right hand and reaches for his gun with the other. "Touch it and I'll kill you myself."

"Ashley." Angel says, confused at what's going on and why I'm threatening Eric. A guy that's never done anything wrong to me.

"Who are you?" I ask him in a cold and calculated voice as I move closer to him. I knew something was off about him and I think I just caught him red handed.

"This is not what you think Ashley, I'm here to help you." He replies, taking his hand away from his gun, placing the radio down on the desk.

"Tell me who you are right now before I blow your kneecaps off."

"Ashley!" Angel scolds me.

"He's not who we think he is, Angel." I turn to her and say quickly, not wanting to take my eyes off of Eric for too long.

"Ashley you have this all wrong, I-"

"Who were you talking to on the radio?" I ask, moving closer to him, my weapon still pointing at his head.

"I can't-"

"I see it this way Eric, if that is even your real name." I snap. "You can either tell me who you are and why you're here or I can kill you right now." I shrug, knowing it would be no problem to put a bullet in his brain. I move closer to him, the barrel of my gun now touching his temple.

"I'm on your side." He tries.

"I find it hard to believe that." I reply quickly.

"Ashley maybe you should just put the gun down." Angel tells me.

"I'm not doing anything until he tells me who he was talking to on the radio. Who's base? Are you trying to steal the cure from us once it's finished? What do you want?" I throw out all these different questions.

"Ashley just put the gun down." Angel says again.

"You should listen to her." Eric speaks up.

"You don't say anything unless you're answering one of my questions." I snap at him.

"Ashley this isn't the right way."

"Yeah Ashley, this isn't wise." Eric speaks again.

"I'm warning you Eric." I tell him, taking the safety off my weapon.

"Ashley don't do this." Angel pleads with me.

"Tell me who you are!" I half shout to him.

"I'm on your side, Ashley!" He tells me again, matching my tone.

"Ashley put the gun down."

"What do you want from us?"

"I've been helping since I got here, if I wanted anything, I would have taken it already."

"Ashley."

"You have five seconds to tell me who you were talking to on the radio." I inform him.

"This isn't what you want to do Ashley, I promise you that you're gonna-"

"Five." I start counting down.

"Ashley please just-"

"Four."

"You're not getting it, I'm here to help you."

"Three."

"Ashley you can't be serious right now, this is Eric we're talking about, Eric!" She says his name again like that's supposed to change something.

"Two." I say then cock my gun.

"Okay, I didn't want to do this." Eric says. The next thing that happened was blur. He ducked and spun around, clipping me and snatching the gun from my sound of my head hitting the floor was unmistakeable. Like a loud thud, followed by ringing in my ears. I heard Angel call my name as I blinked out the tears. The pain becoming unbearable.

"What are you?" I breathe out, my eyes fluttering shut right before the blackness took over.


	26. Our Connection

Just to let you guys know, this story is winding down now.

* * *

"Ashley, Ashley. Are you okay?" I hear Angel asks as she shakes me awake. The constant throbbing in my head is making it hard to hear.

"Ugh." I groan out as my hand shoots to the back of my head. Yep, there's a knot there.

"Are you okay?" Angel asks me again as my eyes flutter open. The light hurts them.

"I have a concussion." I whisper, hoping she would follow my lead and lower her voice.

"How do you know?" She questions, lowering her voice.

"I just do." I assure her, trying to sit up.

"Maybe you should lay back down." Eric instructs me, trying to put a hand on my shoulder. I flinch and shoot up.

"Don't you dare touch me." I tell him, holding a hand up between him and myself.

"Ashley calm down." Angel whispers.

"How can you tell me to calm down? He just assaulted me!" I say almost hysterically as Eric inches closer to me.

"I hardly assaulted you Ashley." He half chuckles. Oh this shit funny?

"Eric, I swear that once this pounding in my head stops I'm gonna-"

"Ashley stop trying to prove you have the bigger balls and just hear him out please." Angel says, pulling up a chair so I could sit down. I take a seat, never taking my eyes off Eric.

"You have five minutes." I tell him coldly. He nods and smiles as he pulls up a chair across from me and Angel leans on a nearby table.

"I'm not a bad guy." He starts. How convincing. I roll my eyes as he continues. "I'm just like you Ashley, I want to fix what they did. I want to make everything right again."

"How do you know what _they_ did exactly?" I question with a raised brow.

"I was here." He replies quickly.

"What? What do you mean you were-"

"Room 511." He cuts me off.

"No." I say as I shake my head. "There's no way that you-"

"There is." He nods. "My mom was on the research team that your mom ran." He says, half smiling at a memory in his head. "She didn't want me to be apart of it." He shakes his head. "She begged me not to actually. But I'm stubborn and I wanted to make a difference in the world. I wanted to be apart of something special. Don't you understand what would have happened if the serum had worked?" He asks with wide eyes. "Cancer...gone. AIDs...gone. No more common colds, no more anything really." He shakes his head. "Mankind wouldn't have had to worry about any of that stuff anymore." He pauses and sighs, standing and walking around his chair. "But I guess mother nature decided against that plan." He half chuckles.

"My mom would have never allowed you to take part, you were only-"

"Fourteen at the time." He nods. "Right. Your mom didn't know. Like I said, I had to beg my mom to be apart of it."

"That still doesn't explain-"

"Why I'm here and how I found you?" He finishes my sentence for me. "I've been following you since you left Atlanta. We set up camp there."

"We?" I question.

"My dad, about thirty or so army soldiers, and myself. That was who you heard me talking to." He clarifies.

"Why?"

"Ground zero." He shrugs.

"We were gonna rebuild, or at least we were trying to figure out a way to rebuild."

"So you're the ones that trapped all those walkers int the fences at Gwinnett center?" I question.

"Yeah." He nods and smiles proudly.

"What exactly were you going to do with them, seeing as though none of you knew anything about the cure at the time?" I question with a raised brow.

"We weren't sure yet." He shrugs. "We figured we'd keep them there until we figured it out. At least we'd be able to scavenge Atlanta without worrying about the walkers."

"Well you missed two." I throw out angrily. Remembering the two walkers that attacked Aiden.

"No we didn't." He shakes his head as he comes back around his chair and takes a seat.

"What?" I sit up straight, my brown eyes fixed on his green ones.

"We needed you to figure it out." He starts, glancing over at Angel before he scoots his chair back from me.

"What do you mean you needed me to figure it out?" I ask through gritted teeth. I glance at Angel who looks decidedly scared. It's like she can't figure out whether to stop Eric from saying whatever he's about to say or to come and hold me down.

"Ashley we were right there, we were gonna step in if you couldn't figure it-"

I let out a shrill of a laugh, cutting right through Eric's words. "You have got to be fucking kidding me!" I shout, standing up from my chair. "You sent two walkers in to attack my best friend so I could figure out that my blood was a piece of the cure puzzle?"

"It's more complicated then-"

"And Spencer? What about Spencer! Did you left go of Rebecca on purpose?" I question him and I suggest he chose his answer carefully.

"We needed to move-"

"I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna fucking kill him." I lunge for him but Angel catches me, stopping me from reaching him.

"Ashley I knew what your blood could do and so did you. Spencer was never truly in danger."

"But you're gonna be." I tell him through gritted teeth.

"Ashley you just need to calm down and let him finish." Angel tells me as she backs up.

"You know Eric, I could kill you right now." I smirk as I sit back down, scooting my chair closer to his.

"Ashley we both know-"

"No." I shake my head. "I'm faster, stronger and smarter than you Eric. Maybe not book smarts, but I've seen more shit in the past year then you've probably seen in your entire life so right now, I want you to think very carefully about how you answer this question." I tell him with narrowed eyes. "Are you here to steal the cure from us to take back to your camp?"

"No." He shakes his head. "I told you, I was sent here to help Ashley. We have no intentions of stealing anything. We just wanna help. We all want the same thing; to rebuild. To get things back to normal, as much as possible."

"Then why keep your identity a secret?"

"I wasn't sure if you'd believe me at first. I had to show you that I wasn't a threat. That I didn't want anything from you. I just wanted to help." He chuckles. "And then I kinda fell for Kyla and..." He trails off when he sees the look on Angel's face. "Anyway, once the cure is done I'm heading back to Atlanta, you guys are more than welcome to join us at our camp. There's plenty of room. We also have the means to get this cure circulating." He adds.

"So that story about your dad it was-"

"A way to get you guys to let me in. My dad's back in Atlanta." He explains. I could kill him right now. I could.

All the secrecy and for what?

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"I guess you don't." He shrugs. "But I haven't done anything to make you not trust me Ashley, have I?" He questions with a raised brow. I mean technically he hasn't but he could just be really good at his job.

And that job could very well be to get his hands on the cure any way he can.

"I don't trust you." I tell him bluntly.

He smiles a small smile. "I understand."

"But now that we see we're all on the same side, can we not fight anymore?" Angel asks, causing Eric and I both to turn and look at her briefly. I turn back to him and nod my head, rolling my eyes a bit.

"Fine."

"Yeah, okay." He nods along with me.

"Great." Angel claps her hands together, walking closer to us. "Let's go tell the group our new found revelations, shall we?" She asks, putting a hand on each of our backs.

We both nod before we all head back down to meet up with the rest of the group.


	27. Test Subject

After telling the group about Eric's past everyone seemed to be pretty understanding, even Aiden. I don't get how they can just be so calm about it. He lied to us to infiltrate our group, and possibly steal the cure. This is no time to be calm.

After the announcement we headed back to the lab to finish up working on the cure.

"It's nearly complete." Dr. Johnson says as we walk into the lab. "Only a couple more tests and we're all set to test it."

"We're that close?" I question in disbelief. This all happened really fast. I can't believe we're so close.

"Mhm." He replies nonchalantly as he puts on his goggles.

"We're not gonna test her though right?" Angel asks, pointing over to Rebecca. I turn to look at Dr. Johnson. He takes his goggles off, looking over at his granddaughter.

"We probably shouldn't." I shake my head. "Not first anyway."

"We're gonna need to get a test subject then." Eric speaks up.

"I'll do it." I tell them, standing up from the chair I'd just sat in.

"No, I can-"

"I got it, Eric." I cut him off, rolling my eyes.

"This isn't a pissing match guys." Angel says, shaking her head. "Ashley just take him with you." She shrugs. "What harm could it be?"

"Ugh fine." I groan and practically stomp out of the lab.

"What's wrong with you?" Spencer chuckles at my face when I look up at her. Clearly I'm being a kid right now.

"Angels making me take Eric on a zombie run." I tell her with a pout.

"Why are you going on this said zombie run exactly?" She questions with a raised brow.

"We need one." I say simply. She smiles and waits for me to finish. "Oh! To test the cure on." I add.

She nods in understanding. "What's so wrong with taking-"

"Ugh!" I groan, cutting her off. I stomp down the hall and I hear her giggle as she chases after me.

"You really don't like him do you?" She asks when she reaches me.

"Not really." I pout, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Don't be cute." She kisses away my pout. "But he's not that bad, Ash. He's just here too-"

"Help, I know." I cut her off, rolling my eyes.

"Look, just give him a chance. You're a great judge of character Ashley. You knew something was up with him and now that you know what that something is, you just need to move past the distrust phase."

"Hey!" Hannah bangs on the glass across from us. Not this again. I shake my head, and sigh. I let out a grunt as I turn abruptly and head towards the door.

"Ashley no no no." Spencer chases after me.

"Look!" I burst into the room and say. "We're trying to create a cure... a vaccine, something that could save your asses and probably save the whole freaking word. So can you just sit your ass down, eat your food, drink your water and calm the fuck down." I snap. Her eyes get wide as she backs up into the wall and takes a seat next to her male counterpart. Who has been a model hostage might I add. "When we're done we're gonna give you two the vaccine and send you on your way, okay?!" I shout. She nods with wide eyes and I turn and walk away. I hear Spencer shut the door as she follows me out.

"You know you scared that poor girl right?" Spencer chuckles.

"Good."

"Are we ready?" Eric asks, walking down the hall.

"Ready for what?" Aiden asks as him and Glen appear from the other direction.

"Oh, Eric and Ash are going zombie hunting." Spencer speaks up for me. I turn and look at her. She gives me a 'what?' face.

"Oooo. We wanna go. We're bore of sitting here. Can we come? Can we?" Glen and Aiden both plead like two little girls.

"You're both idiots." I shake my head and walk away, electing to not even answer them.

"I guess we're coming then!" Glen shouts to my retreating figure.

–

"Why can't we find a damn zombie when we need one?" Aiden asks as we walk the streets of L.A. We decided to not even try to go get a zombie from the basement. Too Risky. We didn't want to have to kill anyone in the process.

"It's because they're all scared of you Aiden I'm sure." I roll my eyes as we continue to walk.

"Ooo burn." Spencer chuckles, interlocking our fingers. I glance down at our hands and then at her. She beams a smile at me.

"That wasn't a burn stupid, shut up!" Glen tells his little sister and we all chuckle. And by all, I really mean all. Everyone decided to come. We came out to get one freaking zombie and everyone under the age of twenty, except for Francisco and Jessica, decided to come.

"Are we letting Eric handle this one or-"

"Really?" I snap at Kyla.

"I was just asking." She says, holding up her hands in defense. Eric chuckles but doesn't say anything.

"Can we please just find a zombie so we can head back." I tell the group, wishing they all would have just stayed back at camp. Well everyone except Spencer.

"Oh! There's one, there's no." Glen points and practically jumps up and down. We all turn to look at him.

Seriously though?

He shrugs and ducks his head.

"I got it." I tell them, untangling my fingers from Spencers and grabbing my bow off my back.

"We wanna see what Eric can do." Kyla says and her head immediately shoots to the ground when I turn around to look at her. Why the fuck is everyone so fascinated with Eric right now?

"Whatever." I shrug it off, rolling my eyes. Eric glances at the group, everyone sporting a smile, urging him to go on. He nods, taking his knife from the holster on his belt, grabbing the zip-ties and gag from my hands before heading towards the walker.

Everyone stands back and watches as he approaches the zombie.

"This is gonna be so awesome." Glen practically squeals.

"Zip it blondie." I snap. He smacks his lips and rolls his eyes.

Well if that wasn't the gayest thing he's ever done...

Spencer snickers and leans closer to me.

"You're not jealous of all the attention Eric's getting, are you baby?" She whispers in my ear.

Huh?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear anything over the sound of my heart beating out of my chest.

You heard her call me baby too right?

Kay.

Just checking.

"Yeah." I pout and she kisses it away. It's so nice to be like this again. "You know what will make me feel better?" I question, turning to her with a raised brow.

"What?" She asks, smirking. I'm sure she already knows the answer.

"If you'd totally be my girlfriend again. Right here and now."

"Yes." She says and it catches me off guard.

"Wait, what?" I turn to her and ask with wide eyes.

"Oooh!" The entire group shouts and I turn around to see that Eric has taken down the zombie and is now zip-tying it.

"What'd I miss?" Spencer asks looking around me.

"Hey!" I shriek, there are more important things happening here.

"I'm sorry." She turns back to me and smiles. "Yes, I'll be your girlfriend again."

"But I thought you said that we were gonna wait until-"

"Are you trying to talk me out of it?" She asks with a raised brow.

"No." I shake my head quickly.

"Ashley you missed it, he totally just whopped that zombies ass." Aiden says enthusiastically.

"Yeah, yeah." I reply nonchalantly, waving him off as I smile down at my _girlfriend_. I lean forward and kiss her, somehow this kiss feeling different than our past few kisses. I guess the title really does mean something. "Glad to have you back." I say when we pull back.

"Uh, can we go guys?" Eric asks as he walks back toward us with the zombie. I look up and see a herd of zombies headed this way. I guess they decided to come out and play.

"Put that thing in the back, Eric ride in the back. Aiden drive that car." I toss him the keys to the car I was driving and Glen hands me the keys to the SUV I'd now be driving. We all pile into the cars quickly as the herd gets closer.

–

"One Zombie, nice and fresh." Aiden says as he sits the zombie in a chair. Dr. Johnson chuckles and shakes his head at him as Glen ties the zombie down.

"Is it all ready?" I ask Dr. Johnson.

"Yeah." He nods. "It's ready to be tested."

"What do we do if this doesn't work? We only have a few days left on the generator."

"We pray it works." He gives me a tight lipped smile, handing me a dosage of what we hope is the cure.

I stare at the vile... realizing how much hope we're placing behind it. That's a lot of pressure for one little vile of liquid.

Here goes nothing...


	28. The Waiting Game

"How long do you think it'll take to work?" I turn to ask Dr. Johnson as the zombie snaps and chomps at me.

"Hard to say." He shakes his head and shrugs, readjusting his glasses on his face. "Could be hours, could be days."

"But if it doesn't work and we have to start over, without the generator we'll have nothing."

"Angel told me about the generator situation. Are we completely against re-entering the basement?" Dr. Johnson turns and asks. There's idle chatter going on around the lab. People wandering in and out to check on our progress.

"Not unless we want to kill a bunch more zombies." I shake my head.

"No." Dr. Johnson sighs. "We don't want that. Those are my friends and co-workers."

"How'd you all get down there?" I question, curious about what happened here after I left to find my parents.

"We couldn't get out." He shakes his head as he pulls up a chair and sits down. "Those things, they were everywhere." He tells the story like he's replaying the memory of it in his head. "They told us over the P.A to head to the basement, that it would be the safest place until they could clear the building." He pauses, looking down at his hands. "It wasn't... no one thought to clear the basement before we went down there. We practically gave ourselves to them. We went down there and some were waiting, those of us that didn't get eaten tried to hide anywhere we could. I found solace a break room with a few other people." He pauses, clearing his throat. He was the only one alive down there when we found him. "They went out one by one, thinking they could maybe go for help. None of them came back." He adds sadly.

I feel bad for him. He was down in that basement all alone for almost a year. It must have been horrible.

"Wow." I breathe out. It's all I can think of to say. It must have been hell living down there for that long knowing that there's dozens of walkers right outside your door.

"Yeah." He nods, glancing up at me then to the walker.

"Well I'm glad you made it out of there alive, I'm not sure how we would have-"

"Ashley." He cuts me off. The tone of his voice causes me to look at him. He's not looking at me though. I follow his gaze to the walker we caught earlier today. My breath hitches at the sight.

"It's working." I breathe out as Dr. Johnson and I both move closer to him. He was changing.

His skin is becoming clearer.

He's looking... less dead. As the man eyes flutter open, he stares at us. We don't say a word, not wanting to scare him. We're not sure what exactly he remembers, if anything at all. As he stares at us, staring at him, Dr. Johnson moves a bit closer.

It startles the man, his eyes grow wider and he whimpers.

"We're not going to hurt you." Dr. Johnson whispers to him. The man just whimpers before shutting his eyes again. I lightly shake him, he doesn't move. I guess he's asleep again. I'm not entirely sure what any of this means.

"Four hours and twenty-two minutes." Dr. Johnson says, looking down at his watch. He turns and looks at me, giving me a big smile.

I know what he's asking. "Do we want to wait a day and see if there are any adverse reactions first?" I question him. He thinks for a moment before nodding.

"That'd probably be best, I guess." I know he just wants his granddaughter back as soon as possible, but we need to make sure everything is gonna work how it should before we give it to her.

"I'm gonna go let the others know." I tell him with a smile, thumbing towards the door.

"I was just coming to bring you this." Spencer says, holding up a big of chips and juice when I run into her on my way to the community room. Well, the room everyone has seemed to meet in when we're not sleeping.

"It works." Is all I get out as I scoop her up into a hug. "It freaking works!"

"Oh my God, really?" She smiles down at me, giggling as I spin her around in the air.

"Yeah." I smile, sitting her down. "It works. I can't believe we actually created something that's gonna save people. I never thought..." I pause, shaking my head. Spencer urges me to continue. "I just... I never thought that I would be apart of something this special. After what happened the first time around I guess I just, had given up hope." I shrug.

"Well here you are, right now, saving the world." She smiles. "You and your hero complex." She jokes.

"Hey!" I shriek, slapping her on the arm. "I do not have a hero complex."

"Okay baby." She nods. "If you wanna go with that we can. It's cool." She finishes with a smile. I roll my eyes playfully at her. "So what happens now?" She questions as I take the bag of chips and juice from her. I'm starved.

"Now we wait." I reply simply.

"Ugh!" She groans. "More waiting." I chuckle as we head back to tell the rest of the group.

–

"Really it works?" Tim asks with enthusiasm. Everyone looks at me, waiting for my confirmation.

"Yes." I say and the group cheers and high fives one another. Francisco and Jessica start running around in circles. "But, we're not sure what the after effects will be. We're waiting to finding out. So there's a possibility that-"

"Way to be a buzz-kill, Ash." Aiden says and shakes his head.

"What?" I ask raising my hands. "I'm just telling you guys not to-"

"Be human and celebrate the fact that we may be able to go back to normal... to civilization?" He questions with a raised brow. The rest of the group chuckles at our banter.

"Fine." I tell my friend, shaking my head and smiling. "Live in your little bubble." I push up from the table I was leaning against.

"What happens now?" Jo questions. See! A responsible adult like question.

"Well, Dr. Johnson and I are gonna watch him, make sure everything goes okay before we officially declare that we've created the cure." I explain.

"Sounds like a plan." Tim smiles at me.

"Just remember that promise you made to me, Tim." I point and smile at him as I start for the door.

"You're not holding me to that now are you?" He questions with a chuckle.

"Most definitely." I tell him with a nod and smile. I hear and Jo laughing as they explain to the rest of the confused group what we're talking about.

"What promise?" Spencer questions as we head back to the lab.

"I made him promise to run for president when this was all over." I tell her.

"Oooo!" She says clapping her hands together, practically bouncing up and down. "Tim would make an awesome president. And I'd technically be kinda like a first daughter since he's kinda like my honorary dad and all." I chuckle at my adorable girlfriend and pull her into a hug.

"Ugh! Your cuteness is way to much for me to handle right now." I tell her before kissing her lips.

"You love me." She says pulling back.

"You don't even know." Is my reply before kissing her again. When we pull back I lace our fingers and we head to the lab.


	29. The Beginning of the End

"How long has it been?" I glance over at Angel and ask.

She looks down at her watch and sighs. "Seventeen hours." Kyla, whose laying between her legs on the desk, sits up.

"Does this mean that you guys didn't create the cure?" She groans and lays back between Angels legs.

"Shut up, Ky! We did more than you." I retort quickly.

"Well at least I didn't make a pretend cure, get everyone's hopes up only to fail like the loser I am." Kyla quips.

"Go to hell." I reply as I feel Spencer shake with laughter beneath me. We're laying on a sleeping bag near the glass door on the other side of the lab. Waiting...

For what you may ask.

Well for these stupid zombie to wake the hell up so we can see if the cure actually works or not. We've all been in and out of this room all night, checking and hoping something changes...but nothing. He's been sleeping since Dr. Johnson startled him yesterday.

"Maybe he's playing sleep like Spencer did that time." Angel suggests, Spencer giggles. I lightly slap her on the arm.

"That was so not a funny thing to do Spencer." I whisper to my girlfriend.

"Yeah! Maybe he's doing that!" Aiden chimes in.

"No one asked you bubble butt." Kyla throws out to him.

"Why you so meaaaaan?" Aiden whines, folding his arms over his chest and pouting.

"Cause you're such an easy target." My sister replies quickly.

"Leave Aiden alone Ky." I tell her. She smacks her teeth and groans.

"Ashley!" Glen calls my name, the tone of his voice making me shoot upright. I move so quickly I make Spencer's head jerk forward awkwardly. I apologize quickly before standing to look at Glen. He's pointing to the man.

"Holy crap." I breathe out as I walk towards the man. I guess we were so caught up in waiting that we didn't even realize how much better he's looking. His pigmentation is completely back.

He looks...alive.

His eyes are open, which I'm assuming is the reason Glen just called my name like something was on fire.

"Sir?" I call out to him softly as I walk towards him. I don't want another episode like yesterday. I can not wait another seventeen hours. His eyes snap in my direction and I can tell his terrified right now.

"Ashley is he-" I cut Aiden off, lifting a hand. We can't all surround this guy, that would definitely scare him. I turn around and hold both my hands up, telling the five other teens to stop walking and just wait. Kyla groans and drops down to the floor, sitting Indian Style.

My sister the brat.

"Go get Dr. Johnson." I throw out, not caring who exactly leaves to get him, before turning back to the man. "Sir, I'm not gonna hurt you." I tell him softly. His eyes widen as he looks from me to the straps around his arms and feet. "Those are just for your safety." I tell him.

"And ours." I hear Aiden say. I roll my eyes at him before I lift a hand towards the strap on the man's right hand and he freaks out.

"Noooooo." He cries out, cringing away from me.

"He speaks." Spencer whispers.

"I just wanna take the straps off." I tell him calmly. He shakes with every step I take towards him. "Can I do that?" I ask him, holding up my hands to show him I don't mean any harm. He takes a moment to stare at me then nods once. I move closer to him and release the zip ties from around his wrist and ankles. His left hand shoots to his right wrist to rub it.

Very humanly action.

"What's your name?" Angel asks from behind me. I turn around to look at her. She just shrugs. I don't want to overload this man right now. He's been a freaking zombie for God knows how long. There's no telling what's going through his mind right now.

"Joseph." He answers in a deep voice. I turn back around to face him. He smacks his lips together and makes a funny face like he just ate something disgusting.

Boy if only he knew.

"Can we get you something to drink?" I ask him. He nods, and gives me a small smile. I turn around and see Spencer already leaving to get it. "If you don't mind me asking Joseph, what's the last thing you remember?"

He swallows thickly and scratches his head. Replaying the last moments he remembers in his head. "I was coming home from work, I was gonna pack up my family and get to one of those military bases for safety." He pauses and sighs as his hand shoots to his throat. He's probably unbearably thirsty. On cue Spencer comes in the room with a glass of water. I take it from her and hand it to the man. "Thank you." He says before gulping down the beverage. "Another please?" He questions, holding out the glass to me. I give him a small smile and nod, handing the glass to Spencer. She exits without protest.

"That's the last thing you remember? Going home from work?"

"No." He shakes his head.

"Do you know what happened to your family?" I question.

"They were taken, those things... they got them." He says, his voice laced with sadness.

"Do you remember being one of them?"

"No." He looks up at me. "Did I kill people?"

What the hell do I say to that?

"I...I'm not sure." I answer honestly. "We only found you yesterday."

"Oh." He nods as Spencer hands him another glass of water. He drinks this one down as quickly as the first.

"What'd I miss?" Dr. Johnson comes into the room with his hands laced together and a smile.

"He's awake but he doesn't remember anything after he was bitten." I tell Dr. Johnson.

"Fascinating." He says to me before turning to the man. "May I examine your arms and legs please?" He asks Joseph who turns to me. Almost as if he's asking me whether or not Dr. Johnson should be allowed to do it. I nod and he nods to Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson bends down and examines the mans legs before examining his arms. "No visible marks of any kind. No scars or lesions. Almost as if the serum cured everything he may a have ever had." Dr. Johnson says full of excitement.

I think back to what Eric said about the serum the government was creating. The one that started all this. Could my blood be the reason for this mans sudden flawlessness?

"I have a birth mark on my ankle, it's always been there and as clear as day." Joseph says. We all lean forward to look at his ankle as Dr. Johnson pulls down his sock.

"Nothing." Dr. Johnson says amazed. "It's all gone. Everything." He stands up. "And you say you don't remember anything after you were bitten?"

"No." He shakes his head.

"You think that's the same for everyone or..." I trail off.

"It could be." Dr. Johnson nods. "We won't know for sure until we test it out. Did you want to do the honors or should I?" He asks, turning to look at his granddaughter with a smile on his face.

I gulp a lemon as I tell him, "I'll do it." I nod, walking over to the table to grab a syringe. My throat is suddenly dry as I make my way over to Rebecca. I chance a glance at my girlfriend, hoping she isn't as nervous about this as I am. She gives me a reassuring smile and it gives me all the confidence I need to do this. I take a deep breath and stick the needle in Rebecca's arm. She chomps at me and growls as I push the needle into her arm. "You're gonna be fine Beccs." I whisper to her and smile. I step back watching as her eyes drift close.

It can be minutes, hours or days before she wakes up.

And there's no telling what she remembers. I just hope her last memory isn't one of me leaving her behind...

–

"Why are we doing this again?" Aiden asks, clenching the pole in his hand tighter.

I roll my eyes and sigh. "Now that we know the cure works, we have to cure all these people." I tell him for like the tenth time.

"Well I don't think this is such a great idea. Maybe we should try to find another way in." He suggests.

"Right." I nod sarcastically. "Do you suppose we go through this wall or that one?" I ask with a quirked brow. Spencer, Kyla and Angel giggle.

"I'm just saying." Aiden shrugs.

"Well just don't." Is my reply as we continue to move the stuff we used to barricade the basement door.

"Aiden's right. What if we can't handle all these zombies and they eat us? That would totally suck." Glen chimes in.

"Ashley and I can handle this if you guys wanna take off." Eric thumbs towards the stairs and the look on Glen and Aiden's face causes me to chuckle.

Still don't like him but he gets points for that.

"Shut up dude and help me with this." Aiden scoffs as he moves a table from in front of the door. Angel, Spencer, Kyla and Glen are all positioned behind the door to hold it shut once we begin this process.

I decided there was no way we were gonna be able to handle all the zombies at once so one or two at a time is what we decided on. Once they open the door we're gonna make a lot of noise to draw the zombies this way and let a couple come out before everyone stationed behind the door closes it. We only have about forty syringes so we probably won't get to everyone today but it'd be nice to get most of this done because we don't plan on staying here much longer.

"Ready?" I ask the four behind the door. They nod once and I ready my bow as they open the door.

Just in case.

Once the door is opened, Eric squeezes in first.

What?

He volunteered.

"Clear." He whispers and comes back out.

"We're gonna to make some noise." I tell the group.

_POW POW POW _

Three gunshots ring out and we all snap to cover our ears, turning our attention to Aiden who has his gun pointed towards the ceiling.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I ask him and he shrugs.

"What? You said make some noise."

"You could have killed someone you idiot." I snap.

"Oh don't be so dramatic, I pointed it upwards." He says as he holsters his gun.

"Look at the ceiling you moron." I tell him and he looks up. "Stainless steel, more sanitary than that other crap. They could have ricocheted!" I add.

"Oh." Is all he can say.

"Um guys." Eric says, pointing to the door. A couple zombies fall out trying to climb over each other.

"Close it, close it!" I tell the four holding the door and they do so quickly. Struggling to keep it closed.

"Huury!" Kyla yells as Eric races over to one of the zombies, grabbing it and dragging it by it's legs. I grab the other one and pull it towards the stairs. He tosses me a syringe. I catch it in my left hand and stick it in the zombies arm quickly. We then drag the zombies under the stairs to complete their transformation.

"Next." I tell them and they open the door to allow a couple more zombies to come out and we do it all over again. After twenty-two zombies we're tired and just want to go upstairs and lay down with our respective partners.

"Can we just finish this tomorrow?" Kyla whines, pushing on the door to keep it closed. Everyone mumbles in agreement.

"Yeah. Let's finish up tomorrow. Eric help me put this stuff back." I command, walking over to one of the tables.

"Shit, shit, shit." Falls from Glens mouth and I don't like the sound of it. He loses his grip on the door and even with the three girls holding it, it pops open. We all take off up the stairs the thirty or so zombies hot on our trail.

"Nice going, Glen." Spencer chides her brother.

"It was an accident, Spencer!" He snaps back.

"I have an idea." I tell the group. "On three let's run in and bring all the zombies in with us, then run around the level and lock them in until tomorrow."

"Good idea." Eric agrees.

Well no one asked you Eric.

When we get to the third level I open the door and everyone runs in, the zombies right behind us. We take our times, letting all the zombies catch up, making sure they're all inside before we speed up and lead them around the halls.

"Go faster fat head." Angel shouts to Eric as she almost runs into him. I hold in a laugh. We all make it to the other side and back around to the door before the zombies reach us. Eric and I shut the door and lock it. Everyone is breathing heavily as we lean against the wall, stairs and railing to try to catch our breath.

"Next time the strong people are holding the doors." Glen says out of breath.

"So you'd rather be the one sticking the zombies then?" I question with a raised brow.

"Right." He nod with narrowed eyes. "Better stick to holding doors." He nods and Aiden nods in agreement.

–

"Any change yet?" I ask Dr. Johnson as I walk into the lab. We all took showers after that mess downstairs then Spencer and I rested for a bit before she fell asleep.

"Nothing major." He shakes his head. "She's looking better though doesn't she?" He asks with a smile as I pull up a chair next to him and sit down.

I nod. "Do you think she's gonna remember?" I turn to him and asks.

"Depends on what you're referring to." He says, keeping his eyes on her.

"What happened that day. How she turned?"

"Hard to say. Joseph seemed to remember his final moments pretty vividly. But everyone is different, can't say for sure."

"I don't want the last thing she remembers to be me leaving her." I reply softly, dropping my head as I stare at the girl in front of me. The girl I once loved more than anything.

"There was nothing you could have done, I'm sure if you could have you would've." He turns and lifts my head, giving me a small smile. "Rebecca knew how much you loved her. She told me all the time. And she loved you. I'm sure that she can forgive you for whatever happened." He adds and gets up from his chair. "I'm gonna get dinner, did you want anything?" He asks and I just shake my head. "I'll be back shortly."

"Okay." I nod and turn back to look at Rebecca as I hear the door close. "I'm sorry for the way things happened Beccs. I really wish I could go back and change it. I would have saved you. I would have fought those things off. I love you, Beccs. If you can hear me, know that I love you and that I will always love you. I'm such a coward for not having the guts to say this when you wake up, but I'm not the same Ashley anymore. As much as I love you, I love Spencer so much. She's grown into my heart and I can't mess up with her again. I didn't like the feeling of not being with her. So I'm sorry." I lean forward and drop my head on her shoulder as the tears start to flow freely. I don't wanna hurt Rebecca, she doesn't deserve that.

A hand lands on my shoulder and a soft voice tells me, "It's okay. I understand." I shoot up quickly and stare down at my ex girlfriend. Eyes wide with bewilderment.  
"You're awake." I breathe out. The soft smile that plays at her lips tells me she's back. That the Rebecca I knew and loved is here right now. That becoming a zombie changed nothing about her except her appearance and well... you know, her need to devour human flesh. "Beccs." I whisper, wrapping her up in a hug.

"Ashley you're squeezing the life out of me." She says and I pull back, tossing my head back in laughter at the irony of that statement.

"I've missed you!" I hug her again.

"Please release me. I'm sure I smell like night of the living dead." She jokes and I can't help but smile at her. I glance down at her hands and feet and realize her straps are gone.

Who did that?

"I think my granddad did it." She says softly, answering the question I only asked in my head. She was always so good at that. Reading my mind. She smacks her lips together, I'm guessing she's thirsty like the guy was. I run over and grab the two bottles of water I'm guessing Dr. Johnson brought in for her and hand them to her. "I remember hearing his voice right?" She asks as she opens the bottle of water and gulps it down. I nod.

"Beccs, do you um... do you remember anything?" I ask timidly. I'm not really sure what she's gonna remember but I'm hoping her last memory isn't of me leaving her.

"It's okay Ashley." She nods, opening up a new bottle of water. "I know what you're afraid of. You had to run, if you hadn't we would have both been zombies."

"Forever." I mumble.

"What do you mean?" She scrunches up her eyebrows.

"Well, my blood was kinda the cure. Mine and Spen-" I pause, scanning her face for a reaction to me almost saying Spencer's name. She doesn't even flinch. "Do you remember anything from while you were a zombie?" I ask, taking my bottom lip in between my teeth.

"Still the charmer I see." She smiles weakly, sitting back in the chair. I take the two empty bottles from her and sit them on the table next to me.

"I was never a charmer." I shake my head and smile.

"Sure as hell got me somehow." She jokes.

"You were easy." I retort. She lets out one quick laugh that quickly turns into a cough. "You need more water?" I stand quickly and asks.

"Mhm." She nods. "I feel like I haven't had anything to drink in years." She says grabbing her throat. "It's on fire." She adds.

"I'll be right back with your granddad and some water." I tell her and turn to leave.

"Ashley." She calls out to me softly, stopping me.

"Yeah?" I turn back to her and asks.

"I didn't like the show, by the way." She smirks and I narrow my eyes at her trying to figure out what she was talking about. My eyes go wide in realization. She has memories from when she was a zombie!

"You..." I trail off as she nods.

"I am so sorry Beccs, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay." She shakes her head and shrugs. I nod quickly and turn to leave again. "I'm happy that you're happy." She says softly. "But Ashley." She stops me again. "Tell her that if she hurts... I'm gonna have to kill her." I don't turn back around this time. Opting to just keep walking. A smile appears at my lips as I leave.

I can't believe Rebecca is back.

–

"Dr. Johnson." I say as I walk into the dinning area where everyone is sitting around having dinner. The look on my face must have given it away because before I can even get the sentence out he's running past me and down the hall.

"She's awake?" Spencer walks up to me and asks.

"Mhm." I nod, a small smile appears at her lips.

"Is she how you remember her?" She asks with a bit a sadness in her voice.

"Exactly the same." I nod. She drops her head and turns to look at the group, everyone laughing and talking amongst themselves. I smile as I scan everyone's happy faces.

It feels good to know that this is almost over. That soon things will go back to normal.

The new normal I guess.

"Spencer." I call to her, taking her hand in mine. I know she's uncertain about our future now that Rebecca's awake, but I need her to know that everything is gonna be exactly the same with us.

"Hmm?" She turns back to me and asks.

"Come with me to the roof?" I question, lacing our hands together.

She opens her mouth to speak but gets interrupted. "Ay yo Ash come join us in this celebratory dinner!" Aiden shouts to me. I look past him and make eye contact with the strangers that we picked up a few days back. They're smiling happily as they eat dinner along with my makeshift family.

"Later Aide. Right now I need some alone time with my girlfriend." I tell him and everyone in the room coo's at us.

Yes!

Even the adults!

Little Francisco points and laughs at us.

"You better watch it Francisco before I tell everyone about you and Jessica." I point a stern finger at him. He ducks his head before shaking it. Pretending to not have any clue what I'm talking about.

I'm pretty sure the adults will be keeping a better eye on those two from now on. "Come on." I tell my girlfriend, pulling her out of the room and up the stairs to the roof.

–

"So she remembers everything?" Spencer asks as we sit on the roof of the building, the light breeze cooling us from the hot sun.

"Yeah." I nod. "Even the little show we put on." I chuckle lightly.

"Crap." Spencer shakes her head in shame. "Well I'm glad that she's back. I know that you and her have a history and I get if-"

"Don't." I shake my head at my girlfriend. "Don't think for a second this changes anything Spencer. I love you. I already told Rebecca this. I'm not going anywhere with _you_, Spencer. You're the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. You got it?" I bump shoulders with her and she nods and smiles.

"I love you too." She says as she lays her head down on my shoulder.

"Did Eric go check on the people from the basement."

"Yeah." She nods. "Only two are awake so far."

"What about the hostages?"

"They weren't really hostages now were they?" She asks, lifting her head up to look at me.

"No." I shake my head. "I guess not. What are they still doing here, did we not let them go?"

"Yeah Tim did actually, He gave them some of the serum and told them they were more than welcome to leave. Turns out they wanted to stay. Even after how mean you were to them." She chuckles.

"I was not mean!" I shriek in protest. "Rude maybe...but mean, no way!"

"Right okay, whatever you say." She counters.

"What about Joseph, how's he doing?"

"You sure do ask a lot of questions." She smirks before laying her head back down on my shoulder. I smile and kiss her on the forehead. "He took a shower, ate some food which he could hardly stomach, then went to sleep." She tells me.

"Maybe we should try feeding him ground up human bits for a while, you know, just until he can get back to the solid stuff." I say, trying to keep my voice as serious as possible. She looks up and scans my face. I try to keep my laughter in as long as possible but fail. "Kidding, kidding." I tell my girlfriend. She rolls her eyes at me and lays back down.

"Ashley." She says softly, linking her arms in mine.

"Hmm?" I mumble absentmindedly as I play with her fingers.

"What happens now?" She asks, her voice full of apprehension. I smile as she lifts her head to look at me. I glance at her then look out into the city. All the millions of people here and around the world that will need our help.

"Now we cure the world."

* * *

This is the last chapter. It was fun and I'm happy that you guys stuck with me. Hope you enjoyed the chapter


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